


~~ Epwarp S.Woops 
“ M.A.Hon. C.F. 


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LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
PRINCETON. N. J. 


PRESENTED BY 


Mrge. Donald Sinclair 


BV 4501 .W663 1924 | 
Woods, Edward Sydney, 1877-| 
Modern discipleship and wha’ 

it means | 








Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/moderndiscipleshOOwood 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 
AN DEW EV ACT mn Tiss BANS 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
NEW YORK - BOSTON : CHICAGO - DALLAS 
ATLANTA + SAN FRANCISCO 


MACMILLAN & CoO., Lmutrep 
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TORONTO 






MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 
AND WHAT IT MEANS. 


BY 
EDWARD S. ‘WOODS, M.A., Hon. C.F. 


(HON. CANON OF ELY) 


AUTHOR OF 
“EVERY-DAY RELIGION,” ‘KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR," ETC. 


COUNCIL OF CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 


Student Department, Y. W. C. A., 600 Lexington Avenue 
Student Department, Y. M. C. A., 347 Madison Avenue 
New York City 


Printed in the United States of America by 
THE FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK. 


PREFACE TO AMERICAN EDITION 


I write these few lines of preface just after a first 
visit to the United States, a visit full of interest and 
pleasure and spiritual profit to the visitor. Contact 
with human life, in its religious and secular aspects, 
in America as in England, more than ever convinces 
me of the need of saying constantly and emphati- 
cally what the following pages try to say. This 
book preaches a mysticism for the plain man. It 
seeks, however inadequately, to describe and inter- 
pret that friendship with God which is not the 
exclusive attainment of “‘saints,’’ but which all men 
can and should enjoy. The book seeks, further, to 
relate this mystic experience to the common pursuits 
of ordinary people, and to relate it also to their 
thinking processes. If Christianity is to spread as 
it ought, it seems to me it will have to be spread 
by Christians who can learn to combine a passionate 
devotion to Jesus Christ with a sane and sympa- 
thetic understanding of the life of their day. I shall 
be thankful indeed if this book helps anyone to 
explore that two-sided experience. 

EDWARD S. Woops. 

Holy Trinity Vicarage, 

Cambridge, 
England. 
February 16th, 1924. 





PREFACE TO NEW AND REVISED 
EDITION 


Tus book was first published in 1911. After the 
fourth edition, the Student Movement suggested 
that the opportunity might be taken to give the 
book a thorough revision, especially as it was writ- 
ten in the now remote pre-war days. ‘This sugges- 
tion I have gladly acted upon. I have not attempted 
to write the book all over again, a course which 
might have impaired what of value it originally 
had. But I have re-written parts of it, and revised 
all of it, removing anything obviously out of date, 
correcting inaccuracies and, to a slight extent, 
filling in omissions. I have had some hesitation 
about Chapter IX, but I have retained it, after care- 
ful revision, and after getting it “passed’’ by a 
friend who is an eminent scientist. In the third 
section of that chapter, and in Chapter V, I have 
not attempted to deal with the relation of Christian 
experience to the new psychology, as that work 
is being adequately performed by several religious 
writers to-day, with far better equipment for the 
task than I could claim. I have merely, in that 
connection, said some things which in my judgment 
are still valid, and still need saying. 

I wrote the book in the first instance, and I 
re-issue it now, because there seem to me so many 
Christians, or semi-Christians, in the Church and 


vii 


viii PREFACE TO NEW EDITION 


outside it, who appear to be curiously unaware 
of the amazing richness of their religion, in the 
grandeur of its goal, the width of its outlook, the 
closeness of its relation to common life, and the 
strength of its appeal to all the powers of body 
and mind which man possesses. From letters 
received, and from other evidence, it seems that 
this book, inadequate as it is, has helped some to 
get a new insight into the limitless possibilities of 
personal Christianity. I humbly trust that as the 
book goes forth again it may continue to render 
such service. Its main theme is the Christian’s 
“inner life,’ and the illuminating experience 
of personal contact with God in Christ. The 
tremendous practical consequences, persona! and 
social, of such spiritual re-birth I have endeavored 
to trace in a sequel, published in 1022, called 
Every-day Religion. The two books together con- 
stitute an attempt to describe in ordinary language 
something of what Christian discipleship involves 
for the ordinary man and woman of to—day. 


Epwarp S. Woops. 
Cambridge, 
October, 1923. 


CONTENTS 


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MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 
AND WHAT IT MEANS 





CHAPTER I 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


“Think not the faith by which the just shall live 
Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven 
Far less a feeling fond and fugitive, 
A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given. 
It is an affirmation and an act 
That bids eternal truth be present fact.” 


HartTLeEY COLERIDGE. 


Wuat is a Christian? It sounds a simple ques- 
tion. It ought not to be difficult to answer, seeing 
that a Christian has been a common sight in the 
world for nineteen centuries. Yet the fact remains 
that large numbers of people, who are cultured 
and even religious, have the haziest idea of what 
is really involved in being a Christian. The only 
possible outward test of a Christian can be de- 
scribed in one word, Christ-likeness. If a man by 
his blamelessness, his humility, his consistent un- 
selfishness, reminds us of Christ, we may be fairly 
Sunemthatwue vismauC hristiany out even thenawe 
have not discovered why he is Christ-like; if we 
can find this out, we shall at the same time find 
out what it really means to be a Christian. 

Definitions are always difficult and often unsatis- 
factory. The rare and elemental things, like light 


3 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


and electricity and gravitation, are always hard 
to define and explain, while easy to see or feel. 
However, by attempting one in this instance, 
we may at least clear the ground and find a starting- 
point for further investigation. We might then 
define a Christian in some such terms as these: 
A man who, through Christ, has entered into and 
is living in a conscious personal relationship with 
God, and whose manner of life is determined by 
this relationship. Or, to put it somewhat differ- 
ently, in the words of a thoughtful German writer, 
“personal Christianity is a communion of the soul 
with the living God, through the mediation of 
Christ. Herein is really included all that belongs 
to the characteristic life of Christendom—revela- 
tion and faith, conversion and the comfort of for- 
giveness, the joy of faith and the service of love, 
lonely communion with God, and life in Christian 
fellowship.”* This personal relationship with God 
in Christ is something quite fundamental in Chris- 
tianity. To be a Christian may involve other 
things as well, but it involves this relationship 
as a minimum. We are faced by this fact on 
every page of the New Testament. According to 
the New Testament, the essence of Christianity 
is Christ—a living, accessible Christ. ‘Detach 
Christianity from Christ,” writes Canon Liddon, 
‘and it vanishes before your eyes into intellectual 

“Herrman, Communion with God, quoted by King, The Seem- 
ing Unreality of the Spiritual Life, p. 215. Compare Bishop 
Gore’s definition in his Bampton Lectures, p. 1: “True Christianity 
is a personal relationship—the conscious, deliberate adhesion of 


men who know their weakness, their sin, their fallibility, to a 
Redeemer Whom they know to be supreme, sinless, infallible.” — . 


4 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


vapor. . . . Christianity is non-existent apart 
from Christ; it centers in Christ; it radiates 
now, as at the first, from Christ.” Through all 
the intricate variety of New Testament thought 
and expression there runs this one connecting 
thread, that everywhere we are in contact with a 
religious life which is determined throughout by 
Christ. 

We may now procced, still keeping to New 
Testament grounds, to define this relationship 
further as a relationship of faith. In the whole 
vocabulary of religion there is hardy a commoner 
word than faith. We find it constantly in the 
Bible; it is one of the commonplaces of religious 
parlance; it is an incessant demand from every 
Christian pulpit. From church and from chapel, 
from Sunday school and from street corner, from 
book and from pamphlet, there sounds forth the 
one refrain, You must believe. But faith is one 
of those words which enjoy more reiteration than 
explanation. What is faith? What are we to 
believe, and how are we to believe? 

In view of the many misconceptions of faith, it 
might be well at once to state what faith is not. 
For instance, a living faith is entirely distinct from 
mere credence in certain historical facts. It is 
indeed true that Christianity is inseparably bound 
up with certain events that were enacted on the 
plane of history. And if a man denies that these 
events occurred, or refuses to assign them any 
value, he can hardly be called a Christian in the 
New Testament sense of the word. But however 


a 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


true this may be, the converse of the statement will 
not stand. That is to say, although a Christian 
must needs believe in Christianity’s historical 
facts, a mere assent to these facts is not enough 
to make a Christian. It is quite possible for a 
man to give credence to the events described in 
the New Testament, to believe that Jesus of Naz- 
areth did actually live and die and rise again on 
this earth of ours, and at the same time to remain 
devoid of any vital faith in a living Christ. Fur- 
ther, if faith is not assent to history, neither is it 
assent to dogma. Dogma, as being the Church’s 
reflection on and expression of her living faith, has 
had, and still has, an important and indispensable 
part to play in the progress of the Kingdom of God. 
But it was never more necessary than at the present 
time to discover and define the relation of dogma 
to personal religion. It was inevitable that Chris- 
tianity, on emerging from its primitive stage, 
should become an institution with creeds and 
formulas of faith. But all through its history 
there has been a tendency, varying in strength, 
to misconceive the functions of its creeds. Dogma 
is a wall to protect, but men have made it into a 
barrier to exclude. ‘‘Believe this, and this, and 
this, and then perhaps you may be admitted within 
the sacred pale.’ No wonder that a certain 
impatience with dogma has grown up in our own 
day. If this is the door, men say, then Christianity 
is not for me. Such suspicions are not unreason- 
able. In view of them it cannot be asserted too 
emphatically that Christian belief is something 
6 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


infinitely greater and richer and simpler than mere 
assent to a certain number of theological proposi- 
tions. Christianity does not involve a swallowing 
whole of other people’s statements in defiance of 
one’s own rebellious reason. Indeed, the supposed 
antithesis between faith and reason is largely 
imaginary.t Faith does not curb mental activity, 
rather it equips it for further exploration; it is, 
in truth, “not the anchor but the lodestar of the 
intellect.” 

What, then, are we to understand by ‘faith’? 
Faith, in its simplest sense, is a word describing 
that contact between the Divine and the human 
personality which, as we have already seen, is 
the essence of personal Christianity. Faith is not 
a something inside the man that has dropped from 
nowhere; it is not an aspiration, an emotion, an 
ecstatic state, an intellectual attitude. Faith cannot 
grow in a vacuum; in fact, the word is quite 
inapplicable save where two personalities are con- 
cerned.” Faith describes the process when I put 
myself into communication with the Person Who 
rules the universe. Faith means a conscious and 
deliberate grasping of the outstretched Hand of 
God. Faith means an absolute confidence in 
Christ that He is what He says He is, and will 

porChapictan. 

? This emphasis on personality is a characteristic note of modern 
philosophy. Compare Storr, Development and Divine Purpose, p. 
5: “Just because religion is the movement of man’s whole person- 
ality towards that final unity which we cail God, and which faith 


interprets as a person, the conception of personality remains the 
central conception in a Philosophy of Religion.” 


7 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


do what He says He will do. Faith makes this 
confidence active, not passive; it involves a going 
forth of the soul, of the spirit, on to Christ; a 
deliberate reaching forth to, and reposing in, 
another and greater personality, that of the Lord 
Himself.* 

In answer to the question, Is “God” or “Christ” 
the object of Christian Faith? it may be said that 
if the ‘Incarnation’ is a fact,\then, ultimately, 
no true conception of God or contact with God 
is possible apart from Jesus Christ.* This is not 
to say that all faith in God must consciously connect 
itself with Jesus Christ. A man’s first discoveries 
of God may come to him along channels that he 
does not recognize as Christian. Faith may be 
very imperfect and immature without being untrue. 
Yet, if the Christian idea of God is true, faith in 
God is, in the last resort, inseparable from the 
fact of Christ. And, as faith grows, that associa- 
tion of God and Christ will become the determin- 
ing factor in the religious consciousness; St. John’s 
statement will be felt to be true to experience, 
‘no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” ® 
As Dr. Chalmers used to put it, “I find that with- 
out a hold of Christ there is no hold of God at all.” 


*It is significant that in the New Testament the very meaning 
“to believe” is, in the great majority of cases, followed by a prepo- 
sition governing the accusative case. This construction with the 
accusative involves an implication of “moral motion, mental direc- 
tion towards”; it expresses “an absolute transference of trust 
from ourselves to another, a complete self-surrender to Christ.” 
Cf. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i. p. 820. 

* The truth of the Incarnation is assumed in this book, which 
is not a volume of “Apologetics.” 

* John xiv. 6. 


8 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


So far, and in a limited sense, the contact of two 
human personalities provides us with a very fair 
analogy of man’s contact with God. But the 
analogy is incomplete. It is seldom that I enjoy 
any personal relationship with a man I have never 
set eyes on; whereas faith in God does involve 
faith in the unseen. We cannot eliminate from 
faith the element of the unseen and the unknown. 

Faith includes an intuitive grasp of the invisible 
spiritual world, a ‘conviction of the reality of 
things which we do not see.’’* In all this there 
is nothing abnormal and impossible. It is a mis- 
take to suppose that faith occurs only in the vocabu- 
lary of religion. Both the word and the thing 
bulk large in our everyday life. ‘The greater 
part of our life is governed by belief in facts which 
we have not personally verified, and trust in people 
whom we have not personally tested. We think 
we live by sense and reason, but as a matter of fact 
we live largely by faith, which we only fail to recog- 
nize as such because it is instinctive and habitual.’” 
We eat our food in the belief that it will nourish us, 
though most of us are quite ignorant of the chem- 
ical processes involved. Our relationships with 
other people, both social and commercial, are based 
on the supposition of their trustworthiness; we do 
not demand complete evidence of their reliability 
before having any dealings with them. It is, then, 
no unheard-of thing that we should be asked to 
venture into a region which lies beyond the range 
of actual vision. In that region, which once seemed 
an unreal land of shadows, faith walks with a firm 


**Heb. xi. 6. *Tilingworth, Christian Character, p. 65. 
9 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


tread and familiar step. Faith brings heaven down 
to earth. A man who “believes”? means a man who 
is absolutely certain of the reality of God as re- 
vealed in Christ. God is no dream, no figment of 
the imagination, no abstract conception of the in- 
tellect; nor is He merely a distant ruler of the 
world dwelling apart in splendid aloofness. To 
faith God is the greatest reality in all the world. 
Though all else on earth be a vain show, faith is 
sure that God is real, and that God is near. Faith 
is the rooted conviction that ‘“‘God is, and is a re- 
warder of them that seek after Him.’* “The steps 
of faith fall on the seeming void, and find the rock 
beneath.” 

Faith then stands for the instinctive certainty 
that God is real, and that He is accessible. But 
faith involves the further certainty that God is 
Love. Love is not a thing to demonstrate, but 
to feel. We have spoken of faith as a contact of 
personalities. But who am I, blind and sinning, 
that I should talk of contact with the personality 
of a holy God? Were it not for His love such 
contact would be out of the question. I cannot rise, 
so He must stoop. Faith is my response to His 
seeking love. So far from being a frantic struggle 
after the inaccessible, faith is a simple reposing 
on the strong fact of God’s love. We should be 
saved much perplexity in the spiritual life if we 
could but realize the simplicity of faith. Faith is 
not a lengthy and somewhat mechanical process; 
its operation is spontaneous, direct, immediate. 
As St. Augustine beautifully said, “Do not con- 

bh i ES ao BPE 
10 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


ceive of long journeyings; when thou believest 
then thou comest; for to Him who 1s everywhere, 
men come by loving, not by traveling.’ The best 
way to enjoy the warmth of the sun is to give up 
academic discussions on the theory of heat, and 
simply go and sit in the sunshine. As Frederick 
Denison Maurice, in whom were conspicuously 
united a giant intellect with the faith of a little 
child, once wrote: “I think that to assure everyone, 
and specially those we most love, that God is Love, 
and that they are simply to repose in that thought 
without troubling themselves about their belief, 
or realization of it, or anything else, is our great 
business. God is seeking us, and not we Him; 
and it is an infinite comfort to know this when we 
are feverish and restless with the thought of our 
own impotent struggles and great laziness.’’* 

But while faith is not a struggle, it must not 
be confused with a chance mood or with mere 
passivity. Faith possesses a definite element of 
will. Although it has in it more of instinct and 
intuition than of reasoned search, none the less it 
is not a something that is sent from heaven while 
we idly sit with folded hands. Faith is passive as 
viewed from the side of the spirit’s repose in God; 
it is active in so far that no man can reach God 
without deliberate intention. ‘Have faith in 
God’* was one of our Lord’s most definite com- 
mands; and it is not a commandment that can be 
obeyed unconsciously or absent-mindedly. In the 
act of believing a man can hardly, as the Greeks 
used to put it, escape his own notice. An unwilling 

1 Life of F. D. Maurice, vol. i. p. 219. *Mark xi, 22. 

I! 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


believer is a contradiction in terms. God will 
never thrust Himself on any man; He seems to 
show a reverential respect for the freedom He has 
given. He is not far off, He is there; but faith 
must rise and seize that outstretched hand of Love. 

Thus far we have seen that faith, in its simplest 
meaning, describes the contact of human person- 
ality with Divine. Noting the New Testament 
use of the word “‘believe,’’ we found that faith is 
that which brings a man into conscious union with 
Jesus Christ. Now, it may not be unnecessary 
to emphasize the fact that this union with Christ 
is not simply a moral but a mystic union. It is 
one thing to find your moral ideal fulfilled in Jesus 
of Nazareth and to become His disciple in the same 
sense in which you might call yourself a disciple 
of Plato, or of Aristotle, or of any of the other 
great thinkers of history. It is something totally 
different to enjoy the friendship and own the mas- 
tership of the living Christ, in the sense of con- 
sciously and continuously drawing spiritual life and 
force from Him—and nothing less is involved in a 
mystical union with Him. The idea of a mystical 
union with a spiritual Christ belongs to the essence 
of primitive Christianity, especially as recorded in 
the Epistles and in St. John’s Gospel. St. Paul 
constantly uses the phrase ‘in Christ’? as defining 
the normal state of the Christian believer; and 
St. John has preserved many of our Lord’s own 
words which teach the same truth.t_ Indeed, from 
the New Testament it is abundantly clear that 
~ 2 Compare, for example, Rom. viii. 1; 2 Cor. v. 16, 17; Eph. iii. 
17; and the Discourses in John vi. xv. 

12 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


man’s union with Christ involves more than re- 
sponse to a moral demand; and, further, that this 
mystical union is not to be an esoteric cult of the 
few, but the normal experience of the ordinary 
Christian man. Such a union, transcending as it 
does our human experience, may well be termed 
mystical. And there is no need to be afraid of the 
word because it is sometimes misused and abused. 
Indeed there is no other adequate to the purpose. 
Every part and faculty of man’s being is involved 
in the process described by ‘‘faith’’—his reason, 
his intuition, his emotions, his will. There is a 
movement of his whole personality out on to Christ. 
There is a merging of his inner life in the Life of 
Christ. There is no hypnotizing of his will; but 
deliberately, gladly, he draws his inspiration for 
thought and action from another, greater Person- 
ality. It may be said without exaggeration that 
there is no true personal Christianity without this 
element of mysticism. To quote some forcible 
words of Professor Gwatkin, ‘The spark of life 
is mysticism. I do not mean the follies and worse 
than follies which bear the name, but the convic- 
tion, acted on if not expressed, that a true com- 
munion with the Divine is given to all that purify 
themselves with all the force of heart and soul and 
mind. If there is a man without a touch of this 
mystical faith, that man is dead while he liveth; 
for there can be no personal religion, and therefore 
no true religion, without something of it.””* 

But we have not yet explored all the region 
where faith is operative. There still remains for 
1The Knowledge of God, vol. ti. p. 327. 

I3 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


our investigation what is perhaps the highest work 
of human faith, and that is its grasp of God’s 
forgiveness. No account of faith can be complete 
which says nothing of its relation to the forgiveness 
of sins. 

Be it noted that we are not at this moment 
concerned with any detailed investigation of the 
great questions of man’s sin and God’s forgiveness, 
nor is it our purpose to discuss here any particular 
theories of what is known as the Atonement: We 
take the facts for granted, which is, after all, a 
legitimate assumption, for no unprejudiced reader 
of the New Testament can escape the conclusion 
that the intended effect of Christ’s coming to earth 
was to condemn sin and redeem the sinner. The 
Atonement has indeed an appeal to reason. The 
student of the New Testament will scarcely be able 
to regard as irrational the way chosen by God to 
reveal Himself at once ‘just and the justifier of 
him that believeth.’ But we are not here imme- 
diately concerned with the rationale of the Atone- 
ment. Our sole object just now is to observe the 
part that faith is called to play. 

We have been trying to show that the life of 
faith is a life of personal fellowship with God in 
Christ. Now a moment’s reflection will show 
that there is a great and serious initial barrier to 
this fellowship, a barrier erected by man’s sin. 
We are here in the region, not of theology, but of 
plain hard facts. The sinfulness of man and the 
holiness of God are not things that you learn from 


"Reference may be permitted here to the writer’s Thoughts on 
the Atonement (Student Christian Movement). 


14 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


books; they are things that thrust themselves 
on your conscience in the path of common life. [ 
need no theology to tell me that the uncleanness 
of my life is something that affects God as well as 
me. Realizing that, I begin to realize what an 
obstacle looms ahead if I want to enter into fellow- 
ship with God. In ordinary life if I wrong my 
friend, I can hardly expect to renew the old in- 
timacy as if nothing had happened. Can I expect 
God to act differently? 

Whatever my fears, or doubts, or hopes, the 
plain fact remains that God has solved the insoluble 
problem. No man could move that barrier by 
an inch; so God, from the other side, with His 
own hand, has swept it clean away. There is no 
need here to quote any proof-texts. The story 
of God’s solution of the problem of sin is the bur- 
den of the whole Bible. Let us try and think of it 
all as if we had never heard the story before. 
Christ died; man repents; God forgives. I turn my 
back on the old life, and turn my face to God, and 
behold—the barrier is gone. He is there, and I 
can reach Him. ‘The past for me is wiped out, 
the mists have cleared away, and I can see God. 
How do I know? Because I have God’s guarantee 
when I lift up my eyes to One hanging on the 
cross. Because, as I look, I begin to understand a 
little what God feels about sin, and how He wants 
men—wants even me—back again in fellowship 
with Him. My heart goes out to that Crucified 
One in penitence and love and hope; and as I look 
there surges through me the staggering certainty 
that that death means my life. How can I explain 

15 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


it? I cannot. It quite transcends my ordinary 
experience of cause and effect; it would be incredible 
if it were not a fact. It is amazing, it is impossible, 
but it is true. “It is because I know forgiveness 
is so hard, and is opposed to strict justice, that 
I need it so terribly. I do not need your talk of 
nature’s inevitable sequences to show me _ that 
pardon is a difficult thing, or that none but God 
can make white as wool those whose sins are as 
scarlet. That is clearer than the sun at noonday; 
it is precisely that which weighs upon me. It is the 
impossible in forgiveness that makes its beauty and 
gives wonder to the good tidings of the Cross.” 

Here, no doubt, we are moving in a region of 
facts which, though not irrational, are certainly 
super-rational. We are in the uplands where 
reason finds the atmosphere rare and the going 
dificult; it takes faith to climb the path and 
breast the height. I hardly know how to under- 
stand it; I can only believe that ‘“God for Christ’s 
sake hath forgiven me.’ I cannot do other than 
take Christ at His word when He says that His 
death is valid, “for the remission of sins,’ ? includ- 
ing mine. : 

Perhaps a word of caution is needed at this 
point. ‘That which has been said about faith and 
pardon must not be taken to imply that we must 
explore the whole meaning of sin and forgiveness 
at the very outset of our Christian life, nor that 
penitential tears are the only road to Christ. We 
may be very sure it will take a lifetime and more 

*Figgis, The Gospel and Human Needs, p. 108. 
7 Eph ive, 32, * Matt. xxvi. 28. 
16 


THE MEANING OF FAITH 


to discover the final meaning of sin and penitence 
and pardon. At the same time there is a true sense 
in which forgiveness is the threshold and not the 
goal of life with God; and, be it emphasized once 
more, forgiveness—forgiveness in the full sense of 
a renewed, restored relationship—is impossible 
apart from faith. ‘“‘God’s forgiveness is not given 
to the Christian by fits and starts, it is as complete 
from the first as it ever will be, it is a standing con- 
dition into which he comes through faith in Jesus, 
a condition by virtue of which alone can he live the 
kind of life and do the kind of work which God 
needs in His kingdom.’”! 

One other word of caution in conclusion. The 
meaning of forgiveness is easily misconceived. 
Forgiveness does not mean that God ceases to be 
vindictive (which He never was). Nor does it 
mean, for us, an easy immunity from punishment, 
an immunity independent of moral conditions. 
Forgiveness depends absolutely on the man want- 
ing, with all his will, to get away from sin and live 
his life with God. In forgiving the man, God deals 
with him according, not to his achievement, but 
his intention; disregarding the black past as though 
it were not, God trusts the man for the future 
because He can view his ideal possibilities as he is 
in Christ. 


*Cairns, Christianity in the Modern World, p. 63. 





CHAPTER It 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 





Gls DAT eid ke HE 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


“Henceforth I call you not servants; . . . but I have called you 
friends.’—John xv. 15. 

“We discuss the Way as though He were an absent thing instead 
of a Person. We analyze the Truth as if He was an abstract 
theory instead of a simple fact. We view the Life as though He 
were an echo of yesterday instead of a present force to-day. But 
all the while Jesus persists in being ours.’—BisHop BRENT. 

“Verily, it is a king’s life. to follow the Lamb.”—SaMUEL 
RUTHERFORD, c. 1636 A.D. 


SucH, then, if our analysis is correct, are the 
meaning and the main functions of faith. But our 
survey of the subject is not as yet complete. Thus 
far we have been considering faith in action; we 
have, as it were, seized a specimen Christian life 
midway on its course and have attempted to lay 
bare its secret. But it is not easy in thought, still 
less in practice, to isolate the act of faith from the 
life of faith. We saw in the first chapter that faith 
in its simple sense stands for an intimate relation- 
ship between the Divine personality and ours. If 
that is so, then we can go on to say that the chief 
condition of living a Christian life lies in the main- 
tenance of this relationship. The problem before 
us, as Christians, is, as we shall see, at once easy 

al 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


and dificult. We have to discover how this new 
relationship may be lifted out of the spasmodic and 
the intermittent, and become something continuous, 
growing, and lasting. 

It sometimes happens that Christian people are 
troubled with doubts about “perseverance.” They 
have no doubt of their present faith, but they ques- 
tion whether they will be able to persevere to the 
end. Even if I am a Christian now, how do I know 
that I shall still be a Christian in ten years’ time 
or on the day of my death? ‘There is a simple 
answer to this difficulty, and one which illustrates 
our present point about this continuous spiritual 
relationship. It is this: ‘‘Perseverance” is a ques- 
tion of remaining, not in a state, but with a 
Person. I may not be able to forecast the exact 
state of my feelings twenty years hence; but, 
unless I meantime deny my truer self, I can hardly 
doubt that the distant future will still find me by 
the side of One Who will not let me go. This is 
the secret of the whole matter. The life of faith 
means nothing less than a life of constant and 
deliberate association with the living Person Jesus 
Christ. Take once more the analogy of human 
friendship. All true friendship has its basis in 
mutual self-revelation. There has to be a willing- 
ness to draw aside the veil and admit the other into 
secret places where the feet of strangers may not 
come. Unless there is this self-revelation, the 
would-be friends can be nothing more than acquaint- 
ances. And, further, besides being willing to reveal 
himself, each friend must entertain a reverent and 

22 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


affectionate desire to learn more of the personality 
of the other. They will take pains to share each 
other’s interests, to approve each other’s aims, to 
understand and to learn from each other’s highest 
motives. Now these laws of human friendship are 
closely analogous to the laws of the spiritual life; 
for the laws of the spiritual life are primarily the 
laws of a deepening personal relation. The life of 
faith, it may be said without exaggeration, is a life 
of friendship with God. To be a friend of God in- 
volves a mutual self-revelation on a wider and more 
costly scale than is involved in human intercourse. 
It means that I give Him the keys of my heart, that 
He may walk at will in its inmost chambers. It 
means that, day by day, I spare no pains and grudge 
no time in the effort to know Him, to return His 
love, to understand His thoughts, to share His 
purposes. It means that I must learn, with St. 
Paul, ‘“‘to reckon all things as pure loss for the sake 
of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ my 
Bord 3 

There are, naturally, two sides to this continuous, 
developing relationship. On the one side, let us 
note with thankfulness, He is not a reluctant and 
inaccessible God with Whom we have to do. The 
coming of God’s Son to earth must have meant at 
least this, that God was and is infinitely anxious to 
reveal Himself to the sons of men. We have not 
got to persuade an otherwise unwilling God. ‘There 
is far more initiative, and alacrity, and patience on 
His side than on ours. He is always “more ready 

1 Phil. iii. 8 (Weymouth’s Version). 
23 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


to hear than we to pray.’’ We should do well to 
rest more in the thought of God’s willingness. It 
cannot be too strongly emphasized that the spiritual 
life is not a life of constant mental strain: it in- 
volves rather a simple, natural, unforced attitude of 
reposing on the reality of God and resting calmly 
in His love.t “If God is real at all, and our relation 
to Him is a reality, the conviction of that reality is 
not to be simply our product, a thing up to which we 
must strain. . . . That certainty must be primarily 
God’s work. One cannot wisely attempt, either for 
himself or for others, to do God’s work.’?? “God 
is faithful, through Whom ye were called into the 
fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” ° 
But the two sides of the relationship must each 
receive their due emphasis. The spiritual life is 
certainly not a life of strain; at the same time the 
fact remains that a man must take trouble and pains 
if he would practice the presence of God. This is 
indeed implied in what has already been said about 
the cost of mutual self-revelation. No friendship, 
whether with man or with God, can be built on ab- 
sent-mindedness. It is a law of all life that nothing 
worth the having can be won without effort. Con- 
tinuous association with the living Christ demands 
effort both deliberate and sustained. ‘“Psychologi- 
cally and experimentally it is true that the mind 
must continue to occupy itself with Christ if Christ 
is to continue as a dominating reality in one’s life.” 4 


*Cf. above, p. Io. 

“H. C. King, The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life, 
Pp. 95, 96. TOL COPE nO! 

*J. R. Mott, Jesus Christ a Reality, p. 8. 


24 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


Faith is subject to the same laws as man’s other 
faculties, and liable to become atrophied through 
disuse. No pains must be spared, no means must be 
lost, if faith is to be developed from an occasional 
act into a permanent habit. 

One cannot be too practical in his endeavor to 
live the life of faith. The man who is in earnest 
with the spiritual life, who is bent on exploring 
the riches of a friendship with God, will find that 
any aids, however slight, any precautions, however 
trivial, are well worth while. He will find, for 
instance, that it is indispensable to secure at the 
beginning of each day a time of unhurried quiet 
with God. At frequent intervals throughout the 
day he will, no doubt, be throwing a momentary 
upward glance to his unseen Friend. Or many 
things may happen, in his business, or his reading or 
his intercourse, to remind him of that Friend. But 
neither the momentary prayer nor the occasional 
reminder can take the place of that quiet interview 
with his Lord when first the day begins. With all 
his faculties alert, with his mind as yet unoccupied 
with the common traffic of the coming day, he will 
come to the sacred trysting-place, there to refresh 
his soul in quiet communion with his Master. Only 
those who have tried to keep the “‘Morning Watch” 
know how easily that quiet time can be broken into, 
or hurried over, or postponed. Only they know how 
strong are the temptations to indolence and haste 
and wandering thoughts. Any excuse seems good 
enough to forego that hour of prayer; one per- 

25 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


suades himself that he will be able to find some 
other time later on in the day. But that other 
time never arrives. And the morning indolence or 
forgetfulness is responsible for many a moral and 
spiritual failure through the day. He that saveth 
time from prayer shall lose it; it takes sometimes 
a long experience of failure to learn that fact, and 
jealously to guard a time and place for secret 
prayer. “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy 
chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy 
Father which is in secret; and thy Father which 
seeth in secret shall recompense thee.” * 

The men who in history have made the deepest 
religious impression on their contemporaries have 
uniformly been men who practiced the presence of 
God. Henry Martyn, Senior Wrangler and Mis- 
sionary, has left on record the secret of the far- 
reaching influence of his very brief life. ‘‘My chief 
enjoyment,” he confesses in his diary, ‘was the 
enjoyment of God’s presence.’’ Stonewall Jackson 
was a man who “‘literally carried the saintliness of 
the cloister into the turmoil of the camp. He began 
each day with an unhurried time of Bible study and 
secret prayer.’ * Samuel Rutherford, that much- 
persecuted saint of the seventeenth century, used to 
rise at three in order to get time for prayer and 
study before he started on his parish visiting. Lu- 
ther, when he had a particularly busy or trying day 
before him, would often double the ordinary time 
of his morning prayer. Writes Brother Lawrence, 
in 1688: “Hold yourself in prayer before God, like 

1 Matt. vi. 6. > Mott, op. cit., p. 20. 
26 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


a poor, dumb, paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate. 
Let it be your business to keep your mind in the 
presence of the Lord.” 

Such instances could be multiplied almost indefi- 
nitely. They simply illustrate a point which is 
self-evident. The river must have a spring; life can 
only come from life. The man who would explore 
the meaning of personal Christianity must learn to 
spend time alone with God. 

Our survey of the conditions of the life of faith 
would be incomplete without any reference to the 
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper—the Sacrament 
of the Christian’s friendship with Christ. For by 
its institution that Sacrament is plainly intended to 
be, and in history has proved to be, a factor of 
vital importance in the Christian life. It is not 
necessary here to concern ourselves with questions 
arising from the mode of the Sacrament’s operation. 
All that will be attempted is to indicate something 
of the Sacrament’s meaning for the ordinary Chris- 
tian man. 

To begin with its more general meaning, it may 
be said that the Sacrament of the Holy Communion 
is, to the believing man, a pledge of the reality of 
the unseen world. There is a true sense in which 
the whole visible world in which -we live has a 
sacramental significance. For the seeing eye the 
material universe is but a veil for the Mind and 
the Meaning behind it. Every flower that grows 
has its life from the Life of God, and bears on its 
face the mark of the Mind of God. All that we 
see and hear and handle gains meaning and value 

27 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


from thought and love. At our best moments we 
all believe that the unseen world is the real world, 
and that our disordered lives may win beauty and 
purity from contact with its hidden realities. To 
this tremendous fact the Sacrament of the Lord’s 
Supper is a perpetual witness. Here we have 
the sum and climax of the sacramental truth that 
lies about our lives. Here is the final instance of 
matter subserving spirit. To find God in the 
eating of bread and the drinking of wine—such an 
experience is a guarantee that the spiritual world 
is not beyond the clouds but here on this very 
earth. It is a standing protest against materialism 
of every kind, and especially the materialism that 
so easily dims the vision of the soul athirst for God. 

And to develop this thought further, the Sacra- 
ment on this aspect witnesses to the sacred and 
intimate connection of the physical and spiritual 
in man. It speaks to us of the reverence due to 
the body as being the expression of the spiritual 
life, as in truth ‘“‘the temple of the Holy Ghost.” 
The Incarnation was the supreme instance of a 
human body acting as the perfect instrument of. 
the life of the Spirit. And in the Sacrament of 
His Body and Blood the Incarnate Christ left us 
a pledge that His experience had made possible a 
similar experience for us. No increase in spirituality 
can ever free us from the sacramental fact that the 
body is the medium of the spiritual life. And 
therefore to despise the body as an unspiritual, or 
to neglect it as an unimportant, factor in our prog- 
ress, will be seriously to hinder our union with God 

28 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


in Christ which, as we have seen, is the meaning 
of faith. | 

But the Holy Communion carries with it, for 
the Christian disciple, a significance richer still 
and more definite than that to which reference 
has just been made. It is a guarantee, a pledge 
which he can see and handle, of the reality of 
that mystic personal relationship with Jesus Christ 
which we saw to be fundamental to the Christian 
life. Let us take three of the features of that 
relationship which we noticed, and see how each 
gains an added reality from its connection with 
this Sacrament. We saw how necessary it is to 
emphasize the Divine side of the relationship, to 
realize that God wants this contact far more than 
we do. That God’s utter willingness is no figment 
of our imagination, is pledged by the bare fact 
of this sacred Feast ordained by Christ Himself. 
It is not our doing, but His. It is no man-made 
memorial, it is a Divine Gift. The initiative ts 
His; the hallowed friendship begins from His side. 
As I draw near to His table, and receive the pledges 
of His love, there wells up in my heart a new and 
erateful sense that He wants me, that He has a 
place for me to fill, a work for me to do; that— 
marvel of marvels !—He has 


‘wee stoop d tO. ask, Of Inc, 
The love of my poor heart!” 


We saw, too, how at the very threshold of the 
life of faith there must be some sense of God's 
forgiveness. We may truly say that here, at the 

29 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


Communion, we have given into our hands the 
Royal Pardon, signed and sealed. The broken 
bread and the outpoured wine speak to us of the 
slain Body and the shed Blood; as we eat the bread 
and drink the wine we know, as with the certainty 
of sight and touch, that that Death long ago has 
indeed availed for the remission of the sins of the 
whole world, and that our own pardon is no fond 
delusion of a baseless hope. It is as if He Himself 
stood there, the Lamb once slain, and spoke to us 
in audible tones. . . . “It is no dream that I died 
for you, it is no dream that your forgiveness is a 
real thing, any more than your eating and drinking 
ISsanCcream. se eae) 

And not only is the Sacrament a pledge to 
us of forgiveness through His death and passion; 
it is, further, a veritable channel through which 
His life may flow into our lives. To come with 
humble faith and eat that bread and drink that 
Wine is, in a mysterious but true sense, to feed 
on “the food that abideth unto eternal life.’ + 
Here is a God-given means, which the Christian 
man dare not neglect, whereby may be maintained. 
that mystic oneness with Christ which is of the 
essence of the life of faith. This Sacrament pro- 
vides a bond, a point of contact, of a very special 
kind. We may think of it in this way. Community 
of nature is one of the strongest links we know. 
There is an understanding intimacy between brother 
and brother to which no outsider can possibly 
attain. Now, if I am to know Christ in any real 

* John vi. 27. 
30 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


sense, there must be some common link between 
us, some kind of underlying family relationship. 
Blood is thicker than water; and, to the man seeking 
the friendship of Christ, this Sacrament carries the 
force, as it were, of a blood-covenant. The “‘blood- 
covenant’ is a ceremonial method, widespread 
among primitive peoples, of contracting friendship, 
the essential feature of the rite being a commingling 
of their blood on the part of the two covenanting 
parties. In giving me the bread and wine, the 
Living Christ gives me, in symbol, His own Body 
and Blood. He actually imparts something of His 
own nature to me, so that I am no more a stranger 
but a brother. It cost Him His life thus to give 
me Himself. And to make the blood-covenant com- 
plete I too must give Him of myself; at the cost of 
a real surrender I must “‘offer and present unto Him 
myself, my soul and body, to be a reasonable, holy, 
and lively sacrifice unto Him.” Thus shall the 
mutual giving be complete; and the Sacrament 
becomes a wonderful and welcome pledge that I am 
His, and He is mine.? 

The Lord’s Supper is, lastly, a sacred pledge of 
fellowship with all who share the one Faith. To 
partake is to be assured that ‘‘we are very members 
incorporate in the mystical Body of God’s Son, 
which is the blessed company of all faithful people.” 
Any examination of the meaning and the life of 
faith must take into consideration this idea of a 
common faith; and to a brief study of this idea we 

“For the idea outlined in this section the writer is indebted to 
Vital Religion {ch. x.], by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Walpole, D.D. 
31 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


will devote the concluding pages of this chapter. 

It ought to be possible for Christian thought and 
Christian practice to steer a middle course between 
a barren individualism on the one hand, and, on 
the other, an inflated conception of the being 
and the functions of a ‘Church.’ What, after 
all, is the root idea “of a Church? It might be 
roughly outlined thus. When a man through 
faith enters into contact with Christ—however 
dim his faith and slight his contact—at once, by 
virtue of that contact, he becomes, as it were 
automatically, a member of a Body already in 
existence. For a man to believe, and then, on 
believing, to consider the advisability of attaching 
himself to some circle of like-minded people—that 
is not the New Testament idea of a Church. In 
New Testament thought the Church is there: not 
by the will of man, but by the will of God. And 
the Sacrament of Baptism, at the minimum of its 
Apostolic significance, must mean a sacred guaran- 
tee of membership in the Divine Society. Those 
who are linked together by the faith of Christ are 
ipso facto members of Christ’s Body. Whether they 
realize it or not is another question. But nothing 
can alter the fact that, as believers, they are 
members of Him and therefore of one another. 
“Each believer in Him enters into an Organic 
Whole, and finds himself playing his allotted part 
as a member within a body. He cannot have sent 
his spirit out in the movement which we call faith 
without, by that very fact, entering into union with 
One Who is united by an identical bond with all 

32 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


those who have so believed.”’* ‘Ye are come,” 
says the writer to the Hebrews, “unto Mount Zion, 
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to 
the general assembly and Church of the first-born 
who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge 
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” ? 
So also St. Paul: “Ye are no more strangers and 
sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, 
and of the household of God.” ® 

If such then is the fundamental idea of a Church 
there follows from it a fact of very great impor- 
tance; the fact that fullness of spiritual life is 
unattainable in isolation. We have already seen 
something, and in subsequent chapters we shall 
see yet more, of the meaning of a life lived with 
Christ and for Christ. But let us note here that 
the riches of such a life cannot be fully explored 
on an isolated, private quest. It is only “with all 
the saints” that we can hope to ‘‘apprehend what 
is the breadth and length and height and depth, 
and to know the love of Christ which passeth 
knowledge.” * There is nothing strange in all this. 
It is being increasingly recognized in our modern 
life that we are all of us members one of another. 
The solidarity of human society is becoming more 
and more apparent. Co-operation is displacing 
competition. On all sides men are seeing that, by 
recognizing the unity of society and bringing into 

*H. S. Holland, God’s City, p. 21. 
Srieb. xii, 22, 23. 
SE phriis 10, *Eph. iii. 18, 10. 
D 33 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


play the forces of co-operative thought and action, 
far better and greater results can be achieved than 
by the old method of every man for himself. That 
is a lesson which the Christian Church has always 
known theoretically, if it has not always given it 
practical effect. But there is a higher truth of co- 
operation which we are only gradually grasping, 
which is that we cannot only do more but we can 
be more together than we can apart. There are, 
we may be sure, whole stretches of Christian faith 
and experience which will never be reached and 
traversed until the whole company of God’s faithful 
people move on thither together. Think, for in- 
stance, of the stupendous task of world-evangeliza- 
tion which to-day confronts the Church of God. 
Such a tremendous adventure demands an entirely 
new scale of faith and sacrifice. But the task, and 
the conditions of its accomplishment, are concep- 
tions so overwhelming in their immensity, that we 
can hardly dare even to contemplate them alone. 
We must think and act corporately, or leave off 
dreaming our dreams. If we are to recover Christ’s 
faith in God, and Christ’s power with men, it will 
be done, not by the spasmodic movement of isolated 
individuals, but by the sweeping of one spirit 
through the whole great army, like the wind that 
sways the cornfield from end to end. 

But this is not all. ‘The New Testament sug- 
gests an even greater thought about the Church. 
St. Paul goes so far as to speak of the Church, 
‘which is Christ’s Body,” as “the completeness 
of Him Who everywhere fills the universe with 

34 


FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD 


Himself.” * Christ, in St. Paul’s conception, is the 
Head of the Body which is to supplement and com- 
plete Himself. The Incarnation was the promise 
of the Church that is to be; the perfecting of the 
Church will mean the completion of the Incarna- 
tion. Such a thought adds a wholly new significance 
to all spiritual life, both corporate and individual. 
‘Every great personality,” says Professor Harnack, 
“reveals a part of what it is only when seen in those 
it influences. The more powerful a personality a 
man possesses, and the more he takes hold of the 
inner life of others, the less can the sum total of 
what he is be known by what he says himself and 
does.” * ‘This is a truth which gives new meaning 
to world-evangelization. How can there be any 
complete revealing of Christ till each nation and 
race has brought to Him its own characteristic 
medium for the interpretation of His Personality? 
It is a truth which adds a new momentum to the 
present widespread longing for unity. How can the 
fullness of Christ be known while His Body the 
Church is rent and split by our miserable divisions? 
There are signs, thank God, of a new spirit of 
penitence breathing in the severed fragments; we 
are beginning to see both the sin and the waste 
of our divisions, and how grievously they hinder 
the forward march of the Kingdom of God. And, 
in the plans and hopes for unity, the Apostolic 
principle is not unrecognized that the key of unity 
must be inclusion not exclusion, addition not 
1 Eph. i. 23 (Weymouth’s version). 
Quoted by A. W. Robinson, Are We Making Progress? p. 25. 
35. 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


subtraction. It is not the poor and meager same- 
ness of the least common denominator that we must 
search for, but the rich and comprehensive unity 
of the greatest common measure, which can only 
come through the bountiful contribution of his 
best from every several member; ‘‘the unity which 
seeks rather the synthesis than the sacrifice of dis- 
tinctions.’”’ Both for individuals and for Churches 
unity must mean, not a mechanical suppression of 
individuality, but a glad and free bringing of the 
particular heritage into the common wealth. 

And, finally, this thought of Christ’s delayed 
fulfilment is a new and powerful motive for every 
Christian disciple as he sets forth upon the highway 
of God. The “completeness” of Christ is tarry- 
ing till we each and all ‘‘arrive at oneness in faith 
and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and at 
mature manhood and the stature of full-grown 
men in Christ.”’*+ In proportion as I fail, 1 am 
dwarfing and stunting the stature of the Body of 
Christ. In proportion as I am faithful, I am con- 
tributing to His completeness. What a motive for 
venturing forth to live the life of faith, Wanted 
by Christ as a member of His Body, as a living 
stone for His glorious Temple, as an element with- 
out which His own completeness must needs abide 
imperfect—if that is so, how can I choose but 
arise and, as I am, go after Him? | 

1 Eph. iv. 13 (Weymouth’s version). Quite literally: “Until we 


attain to . . . a full-grown man.” St. Paul’s use of the singular 
in such a context is suggestive. 


36 


CHAPRER IT 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 





CHAPTER III 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


“Sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a 
character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”—-BoARDMAN. 

“To be like Christ must mean far more than men can yet 
imagine; but the beginnings of the likeness, the first hints at least 
of His lineaments are unmistakably present in the traits men gain 
as by His grace they serve and follow Him in this world.”’— 
Francis Pacet, Bishop of Oxford. 


IN the first two chapters we saw that faith, in its 
simplest sense, stands for the relationship between 
two personalities, the Divine and the human, 
and that personal Christianity rests entirely upon 
the due maintenance of that relationship. We 
have now to note the tremendous consequences 
for life and character which that relationship 
involves. 

There are some latter-day philosophers who are 
fond of exalting morality at the expense of religion. 
The important thing about a man, they insist, 1s 
not whether his belief is correct, but whether his 
conduct is right. Religion in their view is a mere 
appendage to morality, an appendage which may 
be ornamental, but can hardly be deemed essential. 
Now, it is true that in some of the great world 
religions, belief and conduct have nothing whatever 

39 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


to do with each other. But let us be quite clear 
about the fact that, where Christianity is concerned, 
religion and morality are inseparable.t In the 
religion of Jesus Christ a faith in God which fails 
to produce right conduct is no faith at all. Theo- 
logical controversies about the respective impor- 
tance of faith and works appear now to be beside 
the point. It is idle to talk of one without the 
other. A faith that is true faith must needs be 
producing the fruit, however immature and insig- 
nificant, of a Christ-like character. And, on the 
other hand, when you see a Christ-like character, 
you know that there is, ultimately, ‘“‘faith” behind 
it. This is not to say that every truly good man 
is consciously a Christian; sometimes he is not. But 
it is probable that his goodness is largely derived, 
in the last resort, from the Christian tradition and 
the Christian atmosphere; and it is arguable that 
his character, however ‘‘good,” will fall short of 
its highest possibilities until he does learn con- 
sciously to know Christ. The fresh air of common 
sense has, by now, blown away the dust of many 
theological disputes, and breathed new life into 
some of the mummies of theological phraseology. 
We are, for instance, learning that it is not only 
dangerous but false to draw a sharp distinction be- 
tween ‘the Gospel of being saved,” and “‘the Gospel 
of being good.” We are beginning to realize that 
salvation is present and positive. The point of 
salvation lies not in what is avoided but in what is 

*The New Testament is emphatic on this point. See, for 
example, 1 John iii. 5-10; Gal. v. 16-24. 

40 


ee 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


found. To be saved means to enter the life of God 
and to share His character. And is the winning of 
character a selfish aim? Assuredly not. For in the 
Christian ideal the ultimate motive is always the 
glory of God. I want a Christ-like character, not 
simply because that is the best thing in life, but 
in order that I may thereby prove a better 
implement for God to use in the working out of 
His purposes. 

The man who sets out to be a disciple of Christ 
perforce parts company forever with second-best 
ideals. A moderate and reasonable standard of 
goodness ceases to be an aim that satisfies. A 
character that on all its facets bears the one dis- 
tinguishing mark of Christ-likeness—no lower ideal 
than this will content the follower of Jesus Christ. 
_ This ideal is vividly suggested by the original Greek 
word which underlies our English word ‘“charac- 
ter.’ This word is only used once in the New 
Testament (Heb. i. 3), a passage where Christ 
is called the ‘“‘character’’ the “exact representa- 
tion” of the being of God. The word contains the 
idea both of impression and of expression. ‘The 
coin is impressed with the likeness of which 
it becomes the expression. God was so perfectly 
impressed on Jesus of Nazareth that men could see 
in His life a manifest expression, an exact facsimile, 
of God Himself. And the true disciple of Jesus is 
sG impressed with his Master’s likeness as to ex- 
press, to reproduce, that Divine image before the 
eyes of the sons of men. 

Is not such an ideal visionary, exaggerated, 

AI 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


impossible? One is almost tempted to think so 
at first sight. Yet we find Christ setting this ideal 
before His followers as the normal aim of their 
lives. ‘‘Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your 
heavenly Father is perfect.’”’* The New Testament 
throughout is permeated with the same ideal. 
There are no easier courses for the sluggish or 
backward pupils. Every Christian is set to scale 
the topmost height. Indeed, we do well to face 
the fact that Christianity is full of the impossible, 
not only in the transcendent height of its ideal, 
but also in the amazing power produced for the 
realization of that ideal. 

But the problem of character has other, and more 
troublesome, aspects. There are two outstanding 
features which confront our view. One, which 
we have been examining above, is the haunting 
presence of this ideal, this vision of our character 
as it is conceived in the Divine purposes. The 
other, and it is often the more obtrusive feature, 
is a disappointing sense of weakness and failure, 
a grave and seemingly perpetual inability to realize 
this longed-for yet elusive ideal. There is indeed 
one potent factor at work which accounts for this 
yawning gap between what we are and what we 
long to be. This factor is sin. 

It 1s very clear that success in the Christian life 
will only be achieved by resolutely facing up to 
all the facts and looking them squarely in the 
face. This fact of sin is the ugliest and most 
unpleasantly obtrusive of all the facts. It is some- 


* Matt. v. 48. 
42 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


what out of fashion in this twentieth century 
to emphasize the fact of sin. Modern thought is 
very busy trying to push it out of sight, or dressing 
it up in all sorts and kinds of disguises. The 
novelist displays it as interesting, thrilling, or 
amusing; while the philosopher labors to show 
you that it is a morbid illusion, or a mere relic 
of the animal, or a temporary step in the upward 
progress of the race. But in spite of all our pleas- 
ant imaginings, we are always being brought back 
with an uncomfortable jerk to the fact that sin is 
sin. And the man who is in earnest with life 
learns only too thoroughly that sin is the perpetual 
hindrance to the attainment of a Christ-like char- 
acter. ‘The hindrance is serious and central. Sin 
is not so much the open enemy outside the walls as 
the hidden traitor within the fortress. It operates 
at the center of man’s personality. Its great power 
lies in just the fact that it affects and perverts the 
sovereign part of his being, namely, his will. In- 
deed, we seem at times to have two wills, a will to 
do right and a will to do wrong, a will to please God 
and a will to please self. And the result is constant 
warfare. Keen and prolonged is the struggle within. 
Even those men who have walked in the closest 
fellowship with God have tasted the bitterness of 
this daily struggle. Listen to this piece of St. Paul’s 
autobiography: ‘“‘What I desire to do is not what 
I do, but what I am averse to is what I do. I 
know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing 
good has its home; for while the will to do right 
is present with me, the power to carry it out is 
43 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


not. For what I do is not the good thing I desire 
to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, 
is what I constantly do. I find, therefore, the law 
of my nature to be that when I desire to do what 
is right, evil is lying in ambush for me. For in 
my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law 
of God; but I discover within me a different Law 
at war with the Law of my understanding, and 
leading me captive to the Law which is every- 
where at work in my body—the Law of sin. Un- 
happy man that I am! Who will rescue me from 
this death-burdened body?’* Do not our own 
hearts repeat his experience and re-echo his cry 
for deliverance? Is it possible for frequent defeat 
to give way to habitual victory? Shall a Christ- 
like character ever be reared on this death-strewn 
battlefield ? 

It is the glory of Christianity that it answers 
these questions with an unhesitating affirmative. 
A fully perfected character is obviously not to be 
achieved on this side of the grave. Nor can we 
expect in this life to enjoy immunity from struggle 


and temptation. What we may and ought to look. 


for is an emergence from a state of fruitless strug: 
gle into a state where victory is the rule and defeat 
the exception. We may certainly expect to find our 
character rescued from the moulding influence of 
sinful habit, and its lines set afresh in the mint of 
God, there to receive an ever-deepening impress of 
the image of Christ. 

How, then, shall this transformation be achieved? 


* Rom. vii. 15f (Weymouth’s version). 
44 


es Pe ee ee ee 


; 





CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


The two essential conditions of success may be 
summarized in two words: faith and obedience. 
Faith in God that He will do for me and in me 
that which I cannot possibly do by my own unaided 
efforts; and obedience to those “natural’’ (and 
therefore Divine) laws which govern the develop- 
ment of every human character. ‘These conditions 
interact; each requires the presence of the other. 
On the one hand, I need not expect that God 
will work a miracle to save me trouble, to make 
up for my moral and spiritual inertia. On the 
other hand, it is quite futile to rely wholly upon 
effort and resolution, without seeking help from 
outside and above; as well might a drowning man 
try to lift himself out of the water by his own 
hair. What we must do is carefully to examine 
each of these conditions and see how they are 
correlated. 

First of all, then, let us mark the fact that char- 
acter is the gift of God. A great effect demands 
a great cause, and if my character is actually to 
be Christ-like it will have to be moulded and 
fashioned by the fingers of God. That man may 
live the Christian life at all is due to a vital force 
acting on him from outside. ‘Except a man be 
born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God.” Man is no more able himself to create 
his Christian life than he is able to bring himself 
into the world at will. To describe either process 
no lesser words are adequate than birth and life. 
“Not more certain is it that it is something outside 

*John iii, 3 (R. V. margin). 
45 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


the thermometer that produces a change in the 
thermometer, than it is something outside the 
soul of man that produces a moral change upon 
him. ‘That he must be susceptible to that change, 
that he must be a party to it, goes without saying; 
but that neither his aptitude nor his will can produce 
it, is equally certain.’ At this point we find 
ourselves face to face with the supernatural in 
Christianity. We cannot escape it even if we 
would. When a man begins to live the Christian 
life, when he finds a spiritual and moral trans- 
formation proceeding at the center of his being— 
here is simply miracle. Here is a process which 
it is impossible to account for by purely natural 
causes. 

If character is a gift, man must put out his hands 
to receive it. And it is in the act, or rather process, 
of receiving, that faith plays an essential part. To 
receive this gift from God involves that personal 
relationship with Him for which, as we saw in the 
first chapter, faith stands. To sum it up briefly, 
the dependence of character on faith will mean an 
attitude something like this: First, a personal rela- 
tionship between God and myself. Next, a firm 
belief that God is able to work out in me a char- 
acter unattainable by my own efforts. Further, a 
rooted confidence that He is willing to do this. 
And last, a genuine willingness on my part to let 
Him do it. 

*Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World, and other 


Addresses, p. 190, 


46 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


Faith in God, then, is the first essential condi- 
tion of a Christian character. The other essential 
condition resides in a willing and habitual co- 
operation with those unchanging laws which govern 
the growth of character. The scientist must work 
upon the basis of known sequences or he will learn 
nothing. The athlete must fulfill the conditions 
which alone give sound wind and_ well-trained 
muscles or his efforts will be fruitless. And the 
Christian man must likewise give heed to the laws 
of right living, or the Christian character is not for 
him. 

Take, for instance, the pre-eminent importance 
of habit. In all the spheres of life habit works 
with a certainty that is almost terrifying. ‘Every 
smallest stroke of virtue or of vice,” said Professor 
William James, “leaves its never so little scar. 
The drunken Rip van Winkle, in Jefferson’s play, 
excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by say- 
ing, ‘I won’t count this time.’ Well, he may not 
count it, and a kind heaven may not count it; but 
it is being counted none the less. Down among 
the nerve-cells and fibers the molecules are counting 
it, registering it and storing it up, to be used against 
him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we 
ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. 
Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad 
one. As we become permanent drunkards by so 
many separate drinks, so we become saints in the 
moral, authorities and experts in the practical and 
scientific spheres, by so many separate acts and 

47 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


hours of work.’’* Habit makes a good servant but 
a hard master. It is not only worth while, it is 
quite essential to enlist habit on the side of the 
spiritual life, to compel it to subserve the develop- 
ment of a Christ-like character. 

And how can this be done? How can we alter 
our habits in the desired direction? We may 
put ourselves on the track of an answer by asking 
another question: What makes a habit? Without 
doubt one of the chief operating causes behind the 
formation of a habit is will-power. I will to do a 
thing; then I will it again; I go on willing it for 
several performances. ‘Then, gradually, the effort 
of will becomes less and less necessary, as the action 
becomes habitual or indeed wholly automatic Now 
will-power is largely a question of self-control, 
and self-control is in its turn largely a question 
of attention. Modern psychology has emphasized 
afresh the enormous power of mind and thought 
in making a character, in building a soul; “what 
a man thinks, he becomes.’ And what a man 
thinks, we may add, is chiefly a question of what he 
deliberately attends to. We are often told that 
a man is made by his environment. It would be 
nearer the truth to say that a man is made by that 
part of his environment to which he attends. ‘The 
same environment means very different things to 
different men. Why? Because different men are 
attending to different things in it. Let ten men 
travel over exactly the same route in Europe; 
do they come back with the same things? By no 

* James, Talks to Teachers in Psychology, vol. i. p. 127. 

48 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


means. Each man has seen and gotten what he 
attended to.”’ 

We can see now how all-important is this faculty 
of attending in forming the habits of a Christian 
character. How can we possibly expect to have 
a character that is Christ-like if, during every 
day, our attention is distracted by a thousand and 
one things that have nothing to do with Christ? 
We need—if we are in earnest with this question 
—resolutely to fix our attention on the thoughts 
and facts and aims which shall make for the accom- 
plishment of our great object. A man cannot be 
a saint if he is perpetually attending to sin. And 
he cannot be a sinner if he is perpetually attending 
to the things of God. ‘Whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what- 
soever things are of good report; whatever virtue 
there is, and whatever praise there is, think on 
these things.” ” It is true we cannot directly con- 
trol our emotions, but we can establish an indi- 
rect control by means of this faculty of attention. 
“Over feeling itself we have no direct power; it 
arises involuntarily in the presence of its existing 
object; but we can determine to what objects we 
will attend.” ? 

Further, this faculty of attention is a highly 
Important factor in withstanding the onset of 
temptation. There are few men strong enough, 


*H. C. King, The Fight for Character, p. 19. 
Meiileiy.es: 


*H. C. King, Rational Living, p. 187. 
E 49 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


when temptation comes, to keep looking at it and 
still beat it back. For most men to look at 
temptation is to invite defeat. We cannot hope 
to conquer that way; but we can at least turn 
our attention to something else. ‘The small 
boy, who is looking through a fence at a patch 
of water-melons that are not his, cannot prevent 
his mouth from watering, but he can run? The 
advice sounds homely enough, but it follows a 
fixed psychological and spiritual law, and tallies 
with an age-long and world-wide Christian experi- 
ence. “‘An image is thrown upon the screen of 
your mind and you look at it. How can you dis- 
miss it? You can only dismiss it by throwing 
another image on the screen which will be more 
beautiful, more pure, and more attractive, and 
which, above all, will preoccupy your mind, so 
that the other image will fade away.’ ” St. Paul 
understood this law and insisted on it as only he 
could: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” * “Thou, O man of 
God, flee these things; and follow after righteous- 
ness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness”’; # 
“bringing every thought into captivity to the 
obedience of Christ.” ® 

Last, and most important of all these natural 
conditions of character, is that which we may call 
the law of personal association. This law, in its 
bearing upon our present subject, may be very 


*King, Fight for Character, p. 18. 
*Drummond, Stones Rolled Away, and other Addresses, p. 129. 
Paral ove 16; ye de Reba Bip tat ars 
Paton eye: 


50 


CHRIST AND CHARACTER 


simply stated in two propositions. The first is 
this: character must be caught, not taught; it 
is more a matter of contagion than of conscious 
imitation. The other follows logically. If char- 
acter is contagious, the highest character can only 
be acquired by persistent association with’ the one 
perfectly good Man, Jesus Christ. And so we 
come back again to the point reached in the second 
chapter. From a new point of view we see how 
vital it is to maintain that relationship of which, as 
we noted, the life of faith consists. For character’s 
sake it is essential to practice the presence of God; 
for character’s sake it is indispensable to spend time 
with Jesus Christ. 

This law of association is one which we may 
constantly see operating in human relationships. 
‘‘No man liveth unto himself’; whether he will 
Or no a man’s character is perpetually receiving 
impressions from other men. And where he 
deliberately cultivates friendship and intercourse, 
the impression is proportionately greater. Is it 
any marvel, then, that the influence of Christ on 
character should be transforming in its effects? 
Think of the astonishing change He wrought in 
the Apostle Paul. Think of the yet more astonish- 
ing transformation of those few fishermen who 
“companied with Him” in the days of His flesh. 
They were admitted to His friendship. They 
lived with Him, watched Him, worked with Him. 
Later, they learnt to enjoy His friendship without 
His visible presence. His spirit controlled them, 
filled them, inspired them. And these men, once 


51 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


raw, ignorant, unspiritual, end by turning the 
world upside down. How? They lived with Jesus. 
Dumfounded spectators divine that this must be 
the reason—‘“they had been with Jesus.’1 ‘“Un- 
paralleled phenomenon, that these poor fishermen 
should remind other men of Christ! Stupendous 
victory and mystery of regeneration that mortal 
men should suggest to the world, God!” 

Such is the meaning, and secret, and result of a 
Christ-like character. I can conceive of no vocation 
so great, no purpose so inspiring, as to live a life 
that shall make men want to know the Son of God. 


SUACtSTiV CLs! 


§2 


CriA Pile RU, 


Mite VA OUR IBLE ES RUDY. 





f 44 ont ; - 





CHAPTER IV 


THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY 


“ 


. . These writings bring before thee, Reader, the lively 
likeness of that all-holy mind; and the very Christ Himself in 
His talking, in His healing, in He dying, in His rising again—the 
whole Christ, in a word, they so present to thy view, that if thou 
shouldst behold His form with thy bodily eyes, methinks thou 
wouldst see Him less!”—-ErRASMUS, A.D. 1516. 


Ir is a noteworthy and indisputable fact that, 
ever since the Christian era began, Christian faith 
and Christian character have invariably been bound 
up with an unremitting study of the Bible. Here 
is a book which, in the nature of its contents, and 
in the range of its influence, presents a unique 
phenomenon. It is a book which stands apart. 
In the whole of literature no adequate parallel to 
it can be found. Its beginnings reach back to 
the dim past of some three thousand years ago, 
yet its power over mankind to-day continues 
unabated and unmeasured. ‘The first and oldest 
part of this unique book was revered and trusted 
and used by Jesus of Nazareth. The second part, 
that which is known as the New Testament, was 
recognized as God’s gift to man very soon after 
the lifetime of Christ’s first disciples. And ever 
afterwards the whole book became something indis- 
pensable to every one who named the Name of 

as 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


Christ. Untold millions of men and women have 
found in this book their refuge and their strength, 
their inspiration and their hope. 

It is a book which presents a paradoxical com- 
bination of complexity and simplicity, of diversity 
and unity. Between its covers is a library of sixty- 
six books, written by men of varied type and in 
widely different circumstances, their authorship 
spreading over a period of perhaps a thousand 
years. Yet these many books make one book. 
Their unity is unmistakable. ‘The phenomenon 
of the Bible . . . is as if in England we should 
have a volume, the product of English minds, 
beginning with Caedmon or with Alfred, and end- 
ing, let us say, with Wordsworth or with Tenny- 
son, which should yet be recognized as not only 
a Collection, embracing elements of poetical and 
prose narrative, devotion, morals, and what not, 
each element carrying its own color of character 
and of time, but also as a Work, full of inner uni- 
ties, portable and usable as the ordered product of 
a presiding thought.’”’* And what is the secret 
of this unity? What is the alchemy which welds 
into a living whole these numerous and divers 
elements? It is simply this: That all these books 
which the Bible includes form a continuous and 
consistent record of God’s historical revelation of 
Himself which culminated in Jesus Christ. That 
is the thread which runs through the whole Bible 
from beginning to end. No critical analysis of its 
constituent parts can impair the unity of the whole. 


*Moule, Faith: its Nature and its Work, p. 170. 
56 


THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY 


As Principal Rainy has said: ““When you have taken 
the Christian revelation to pieces, the living whole 
draws itself together again, looks you in the face, 
refuses to be conceived in that manner, reclaims 
its scattered members, and reasserts itself to be a 
great burst of coherent life and light centering in 
Christ.” * 

And of all the books that were ever penned, this 
book has wielded incomparably the greatest influ- 
ence on the life of the world. It is true to say that 
all that is best in Western civilization will be found 
to be based ultimately on the Bible. Throughout 
history down to the present time, the Bible has 
proved the corner-stone of the Christian life, 
whether national, ecclesiastical, or individual. It 
is, in short, the plain fact that the Christian man 
cannot do without his Bible; take away his Bible, 
and his religious life will starve. 

We may now go on to ask the question, Why is 
this the case? Why is the Bible indispensable to 
the man who would live the Christian life of com- 
munion with God? The answer to this question 
might be briefly and roughly stated thus: Christi- 
anity is bound up with certain historic facts, and 
therefore with the records in which those facts are 
enshrined. 

It has become necessary in our day to insist afresh 
on the vital connection of Christianity with its 
records. For there are some modern thinkers who 
roundly assert that this connection is immaterial. 
Religion, say they, belongs to the realm of ideas. 


1 Quoted by Harrington Lees, The Joy of Bible Study, p. 10. 
57 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


Provided that the idea of Christianity is spiritually 
true, what does it matter if the historic facts on 
which it is supposed to rest should prove to be 
false? To follow up this question and attempt to 
answer it fully would take us too far from our 
present subject. Suflice it to say that this idealistic — 
interpretation of the Gospel may be attractive to 
the imaginative or philosophic mind, but it is not 
Christianity. For better or for worse, Christianity 
cannot possibly be disentangled from certain events 
which happened on the plane of history. ‘‘Chris- 
tianity sinks or swims with the assertion that at a 
certain period of time a human personality appeared 
on the stage of history and was the incarnate Son 
of God.” ? 

This same fact—Christianity’s connection with 
its records—may be stated from another and vitally 
important point of view. Christianity is Christ. 
Take Christ away from Christianity and very little 
is left; it is taking the kernel and leaving the husk. 
As we have seen in previous chapters, Christianity 
consists above all else in personal relationship with 
God through Christ; know Christ, and you will 
know God. But—to push the question further 
back—how may Christ be known? How can I 
know some one whom I have never seen, and of 
whose personality I am quite ignorant? There is 
only one way. ‘If I want to know Christ as He is, 
! must learn to know Him as He was. For He 
actually once appeared on this earth of ours, and 
showed Himself to the sons of men. Some of those 


* Peake, Christianity: its Nature and its Truth, p. 143. 
58 


THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY 


who saw Him recorded what they saw. And the 
portrait which they drew still exists and is acces- 
sible. If I then wish to know the Original, with 
infinite pains and patience must I study the one 
authentic portrait. Only so may I come face to face 
with the Person of the Son of God. 

This knowledge of God in Christ is the supreme 
object of all Bible study. Bible study is not an 
end in itself, it is rather a means to an end. A 
profound knowledge of Hebrew idiom or of the 
grammar of New Testament Greek may still leave 
its possessor ignorant of what the Bible is primarily 
concerned to teach. The Bible student has con- 
stantly to remind himself that his task 1s not the 
mere deciphering of dead and dusty records, not 
the disinterment of an archaic philosophy, but 
rather the endeavor to enter into the mind of a 
living Person, to grasp His plans and ideals, and to 
see life, not merely as He saw it, but as He sees it: 
The Bible is the way into the knowledge of Christ. 
It is the key with which we may unlock the other- 
wise closed door. If a man misses the true aim 
and function of Bible study, he is always liable to 
fall on the one side into mere Bibliolatry,* and on 
the other into a vague religious idealism unrelated 
to solid fact. 

Bible study, then, is a means to an end. And 


1Compare an emphatic, though not an exaggerated, statement 
which Frederick Denison Maurice once made: “The Bible, as a 
means of attaining to the knowledge of the living God, is precious 
beyond all expression or conception; when made a substitute for 
that knowledge, it may become a greater deadener to the human 
spirit than all other books.”’—From a letter to Charles Kingsley, 
Life of Kingsley, vol. i. p. 128. 


59 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


further, it will be found that those means, in the 
several parts of the Bible, vary considerably both 
in the manner and the matter of their contribution 
to the common end. You will, for instance, dis- 
cover far more of the mind and character of God 
from the Gospel of St. John than from the book 
of Ecclesiastes. While every separate part of the 
Bible makes its own special contribution to the one 
great object, of the two Testaments the New will 
be found to be much more essential to the purpose 
than the Old. Anyone beginning to study the Bible 
for the first time would be well advised to begin 
with the New Testament and work backwards to 
the Old. The Gospels, each viewing the one unique 
Figure from a different angle, together produce a 
portrait so consistent, so lifelike, so convincing, 
that as you look you seem to be brought face to 
face with the One Whom the canvas copies. His 
thought, His work, His life, His wondrous person- 
ality, all is portrayed for you with boldness of out- 
line, with warmth of color, with vividness of detail, 
until He stands before your very eyes, not as the 
dim memory of a remote past, but as a real and 
living Person. It has been most truly said that 
‘in the whole compass of recorded history there 
exists no such wealth of materials for the knowl- 
edge of any individual as can compare with that 
which we have in the Gospels for the knowledge 
of our Lord.” And the rest of the New Testament 
serves but to deepen that impression, and to add to 
the completeness of the portrait. Apostolic letter, 
missionary narrative, and inspired Apocalypse, each 
60 


DHE VALUE OF BIBLE: STUDY 


tells us something more of the revelation of God 
through Christ. Here are presented to us, from 
many varied points of view, all the fundamental 
facts of Christianity; here are plain and well- 
trodden ways to that knowledge of God which we 
seek.’ 

And what of the Old Testament? If the New 
Testament is so important, can the Old Testament 
be dispensed with? By no means. To read the 
New Testament and ignore the Old, is as if a 
botanist should study the flower and take no account 
of the stem and roots; it is as if a geographer 
should describe the broad river in the valley with- 
out any reference to the watershed whence it sprang 
or the mountain streams that feed it. ‘The man 
of God” who would be “himself complete and per- 
fectly equipped for every good work’’*’ cannot 
afford to leave neglected any of the manifold riches 
in his Divine library. 

We are not concerned now with any of the de- 
bated questions of criticism and inspiration; some 
of these we shall hope to examine in a subsequent 
chapter. We are simply examining the broad indis- 
putable facts which lie at the base of all Old Testa- 


1 What has here been said proceeds on the assumption that the 
Gospels are genuine historical documents. Those who are ac- 
quainted with the broad results of modern criticism will agree 
that the assumption is justified. While many minor points remain 
for settlement, it is not too much to say that as far as the Gospels 
are. concerned the battle of criticism in its main issue has been 
fought and won, and the Gospels are now admitted, by impartial 
critics, to be substantially true. Some historians have claimed, not 
without justification, that there are no documents in the world for 
whose historicity so much may be said. aise Matin. h 7 


61 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


ment Bible-study. Here, for instance, is one such 
fact. The Old Testament is a record of the begin- 
ning and the growth of a revelation of God which 
reached its climax in Jesus Christ. If Christianity 
is Christ, then the Christian, as he learns to know 
Christ, will also learn to share Christ’s sense of 
God, and to regard the world from Christ’s point 
of view. To the teaching of this lesson the Old 
Testament is essential. There, in the Old Testa- 
ment, is the picture of God at work from the begin- 
ning; God as maker and ruler of the universe; God 
leading man on step by step to a higher knowledge 
of Himself; choosing and fashioning a nation to 
be the agent of His purposes, the trustee of His 
revelation; controlling and directing world move- 
ments and world forces so that they shall minister 
to the accomplishment of His ends. And as each 
page of His revelation is unfolded, it leaves a sense 
of something more to come; it hints of another 
page one day to be disclosed, in bold type and 
unveiled language, written large for all the world 
to see and understand. The Old Testament is 
instinct with the thought of an as yet unrevealed 
Interpreter of God to men; it throbs with expecta- 
tion of a coming day when a Man shall appear on 
earth, in whom men shall see God. Indeed, the 
chief significance of the whole Old Testament, for 
Christ as well as for His Apostles, is its revelation 
of the Son of God. ‘These (the Scriptures) are 
they which bear witness of Me.”! “Beginning from 
Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted 
* John vy. 39, 
62 


THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY 


to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
Himself.” * 

Furthermore, on man’s side, the Old Testament 
is a unique record of a developing religious expe- 
rience. It contains biographies and autobiographies 
of men who responded to the Divine revelation and 
thus learned to know God. It has recorded the 
effect of that knowledge on their lives; it has pre- 
served for us their prayers, their meditations, their 
faith, their work, their hopes, their fears, their 
failures, their outlook, and their purposes. Such 
a record forms a classic, a model, for the spiritual 
life of all subsequent ages. And there is here some- 
thing even more than the lessons of spiritual his- 
tory. The experiences of these saints of old form 
a medium through which God speaks to man to-day. 
In the page which tells their story we are meant 
to hear, and in point of fact do hear, the voice of 
the living God speaking to our own hearts and lives. 

But the permanent religious value of the Old 
Testament is finally and fully guaranteed by the 
fact that it was Christ’s own Bible. He left to His 
Church, as a perpetual legacy, His profound confi- 
dence in the Scriptures. The importance of this 
fact for us cannot well be exaggerated. It supplies 
a weighty a fortiori reason for studying the Old 
Testament in order to strengthen and develop our 
individual spiritual life. If the one Perfect Man 
found in that Book nourishment for His own inner 
life of communion with His Father, can we sinners 
afford to do without it? 


tLuke xxiv. 27; cf. also xxiv. 45-47. 
63 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


From what has been already said it will be evi- 
dent that Bible study is an essential factor in per- 
sonal spiritual growth. This is a subject on which 
a volume might be written, but we can only briefly 
note here one or two points which merit special 
emphasis. In the first place, an increasing knowl- 
edge of Christ. depends absolutely on a patient 
and painstaking study of the Bible.t As we saw 
in Chapter II, communion between God and man 
involves a mutual self-revelation which is indis- 
pensable even in human friendships. If you wish 
to know intimately and to come to love someone 
whose character you already respect and admire, 
you must somehow spend time in his presence, you 
must find out what he is thinking about, you must 
discover his point of view on all manner of ques- 
tions. And if you would explore the meaning of 
friendship with Christ, you must search in your 
Bible for the unfolding of His personality. “How 
can we know what Christ likes without it? How 
can we learn what is distasteful to Him without it? 
How shall we know what kind of men His friends 
are without it? We never expect to have any real 
personal knowledge of a man about whose life and 
actions we are profoundly ignorant, and we cannot 
expect to have any knowledge of Christ unless we 
have learnt from His own word not only what He 
was to His disciples, but what He has been to man 
ever since his creation.”? It is one thing to read 


*Cf. above, p. 50, where this fact was noticed in a somewhat 
different connection. 


* Walpole, Vital Religion, p. 41. 
64 


THEeVALUE OF BIBLE STUDY 


the Bible because it is a literary masterpiece; it 
is quite another thing to study it in order to find 
out what Christ is doing now, what He thinks of 
our modern life, and what His purposes are for this 
world in which we live. 

Further, it is impossible to maintain a high level 
of Christian ideals without constant Bible study. 
No man can attain proficiency in anything without 
a standard to work by. The author, the painter, 
the craftsman will produce poor stuff if they have 
no ideal outside and above them. And the Chris- 
tian’s aim, if he ignore his Bible, will always be slip- 
ping down to the level of the world around him. 
Take, for instance, the meaning of discipleship. 
There is a tendency in every age, and not least in 
our own, to water down its plain meaning, to find an 
escape from its exacting demands. This tendency 
can only be combated by a resolute return to Christ’s 
own teaching on the subject of discipleship. .We 
may think our discipleship good enough till we re- 
test it by Christ’s own standard,’ we may be quite 
complacent about our Christian service until we 
are brought up sharp by, say, the parable of the 
Good Samaritan.’ 

Once again, regular Bible study has the most 
searching and illuminating effect on life and con- 
duct. The Bible acts as a mirror in which the true 
self is revealed. ‘Those comfortable illusions as to 
one’s own goodness vanish like a pricked bubble 
when brought in contact with the Bible. Bible 

*Cf. for example, Matt. v. 3-12; xi. 20; xvi. 24-26; Mark x. 
6377 ec x. 25-37; cf. also Matt. v. 38-48; Mark x. 43-45. 

F 65 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


study produces an atmosphere where pride and com- 
placency find it hard to breathe. ‘The Bible is a 
book that knows no compromise; in the face of a 
dangerous modern tendency it still proclaims the 
sinfulness of sin. ‘The Bible is the referee of con- 
science; it is the final guide to the Christian man as 
to matters of right and wrong, and on the debatable 
ground between. It is the last word in ethics; and, 
what no ethical philosophy has ever done, it can tell 
a man, not only what goodness is, but also how he 
may attain it. 

As a final instance of the value of Bible study, 
it may be pointed out that a knowledge of the Bible 
provides a much-needed corrective of incomplete, 
exaggerated, or false religious ideas. ‘This is a 
broad statement which, if we should attempt to de- 
velop its various implications, would take us far 
beyond the scope of the present chapter. It is a 
statement which the reader can test for himself if 
he likes to examine into the history of Christian doc- 
trine from the earliest centuries onward. No one 
will deny that our own day is conspicuous for much 
unbalanced thought and wild speculation which pa- 
rade under a Christian guise. Movements arise 
and flourish which, on investigation, turn out to be 
at once the product and the refuge of a mental 
tendency which likes to pick and choose from the 
Christian faith that which suits it and leave the rest. 
But this operation can only be accomplished by 
ignoring the one authoritative standard of the 
Christian faith, which is the Bible. 

I propose to close this chapter with a few prac- 

66 


Paty wien On BIBIEE STUDY 


tical and even homely suggestions on the means and 
methods of Bible study. 


(i) In the first place, use the Bible. It is no 
good postponing its actual wse until its various lit- 
erary problems have been solved. “As General 
Gordon used to say, ‘the chief proof that the Bible 
is good food is the eating of it.’ Chemical investi- 
gation into the quality and consistent parts of a 
wheaten loaf has its needful place, no doubt, but 
the analyst’s household may starve, if they hesitate 
to feed upon it until the process has been completed 
to his entire satisfaction.” And, further, do not 
allow books about the Bible, however suggestive, 
or devotional books, however inspiring, to take the 


place) of) the Bible itself. 


(ii) Read it, not just here and there, but con- 
tinuously. Have some plan by means of which, 
whether slowly or rapidly, you will cover the whole 
ground.’ 


(iii) Use various methods of study. Make a 
rapid survey of a whole book, noting its main argu- 
ment and its leading ideas. Or select a chapter, or 
paragraph, or verse, and dig as deep as you can 
go. Or take some large topic or doctrine and trace 
it through a book or through several books. Do 
not be a slave to any one method. 


(iv) Meditate. Give the word a chance to work. 
Ponder the passage or the verse, turn it over and 
* Harrington Lees, The Joy of Bible Study, p. 11. 
* There are published several Bible-reading cards or calendars, 
with a portion of Scripture for reading each day of the year. 


67 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


over in your mind, that it may root itself in the 
fibers of your being. 


(v) Bring to your Bible reading a receptive, 
child-like spirit. As Huxley once wrote to Charles 
Kingsley, speaking of the study of Science, ‘“‘Sit 
down before the fact as a little child, be prepared 
to give up every preconceived notion, follow hum- 
bly whenever and to whatever end nature leads, or 
you shall learn nothing. .. .”’ That advice is as 
important for the Bible student as for the scientist. 


(vi) Leta daily time be set apart for Bible study. 
Let it be a time when your mind is fresh and your 
faculties alert, a state which for most people is 
best attained in the early morning. Moreover, let 
the time be regular, sufficient, and unhurried. 


(vii) Use pen and paper. Record, for your own 
benefits, the results of your reading. Make a note 
of lessons learned, of ideas suggested. The practice 
will both clarify your thought and aid your memory. 
Besides, that which a man thinks out for himself 
is worth far more to him than undigested masses 
of information poured into him from outside. 


(vii) Lastly, as to Versions and Commentaries. 
It is worth while sacrificing both sentiment and lit- 
erary considerations for the sake of an accurate 
translation. The translation of 1611 (the Author- 
ized Version) is indeed majestically beautiful; but 
there are passages where no beauty of style can 
atone for failure to represent the original. From 
this point of view the Revised Version is a consider- 

68 


THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY 


able improvement on the Authorized; and, for 
those who are ignorant of Greek, Weymouth’s or 
Moffatt’s versions of the New Testament (in 
modern English) are simply invaluable.* The con- 
stant or occasional use of a modern version is ad- 
visable for another reason also. For many people 
one of the greatest difficulties of Bible study is the 
sheer familiarity of what they read. The well- 
known words catch the eyes or strike upon the ear 
and penetrate no further. It is just here that the 
modern version is so helpful; it enables the words 
to strike fresh upon the mind. 

Commentaries should be used sparingly and with 
discretion. It defeats the aim of Bible study if 
the student flies to a commentary as soon as he 
reaches anything that he cannot immediately under- 
Stand) It is not’ desirable to read they Bible 
through another man’s spectacles. We can best 
feel the freshness and force of it when we look 
straight at it without any media between the reader 
and the sacred page.” ? At the same time, within 
certain limits, a commentary is not only useful, but 
essential. (i) It enables the reader—and this is 
important—to recover the atmosphere of the book 
which he is studying. It recreates for him, as far 
as possible, the original circumstances in which the 
book was written; the personality of the writer, his 
reasons for writing, the people for whom he wrote, 
the times in which he lived, and so on. In this way 


1 For instance, read in the A.V. or R.V. the difficult and often 
obscure English of 2 Corinthians, and then read the same Epistle 
in Weymouth or Moffatt. The difference is remarkable. 

* Adeney, How to Read the Bible, p. 26. 


69 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


the book will become a living book. (11) By the 
commentary’s help he can untie knots which, after 
prolonged and honest effort, he finds too much for 
his own skill. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 


Of the many excellent books published in recent 
years on the Bible and Bible Study the following 
can be recommended :— 


The Bible, its Nature and its Inspiration: Edward Grubb. (Swarth- 
more Press.) 

The Making and Meaning of the Bible: G. Barclay. (S.C.M.) 

The Meaning of the Old Testament: Hugh Martin. (S.C.M.) 

The Literature of the Old Testament: G. F. Moore. (Home 
University Library.) 

Everyman's Story of the Old Testament: A. Nairne. (Mow- 
brays.) 

Problems of the New Testament To-day: R.H.Malden. (Ox- 
ford Press.) 

The Making of the New Testament: B. W. Bacon. (Home 
University Library.) 

Vital Forces of the Early Church: Kennedy. (S.C.M.) 

A First-Century Letter (1 Corinthians): N. Micklem. (S.C.M.) 

A Short History of our Religion: D.C.Somervel. (G.Bell& 
Sons. ) 


The Student Christian Movement publishes a number of books 
for Bible Study, and reference to their list is recommended. 


79 





Troy eke iy 
_ THE REDEMPTION OF PERSONALITY 








CHARTERGY. 


THE REDEMPTION OF PERSONALITY 


“Though all of us is a temple for Him, yet the heart is the 
choir, where He properly sitteth.’—Bayne. 


“Not even Christ Himself 
Can save man else than as He holds man’s soul; 
And therefore did He come into our flesh 
As some wise hunter creeping on his knees 
With a torch, into the blackness of some cave, 
To face and quell the beast there,—take the soul, 
And so possess the whole man, body and soul.” 

E. B. BRowNIne. 


“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My 
voice, and open the door, I will come in to him. . . .’— Revelation 
iil. 20. 


MystTIcisM is a word that has sometimes got 
into bad odor. Mystics are sometimes eccentric 
people, and occasionally degenerate into mere vi- 
sionaries. And the plain man tends to become im- 
patient and annoyed with types of religion which he 
considers to be vague and dreamy and unpractical. 

Now, it is as well to recognize the fact that the 
New Testament is full of mysticism. St. Paul was 
one of the greatest of the mystics. But he was, 
if I may use the paradoxical expression, a very 
practical mystic. He preached a mysticism, not 
for the initiated few, but for the unlettered multi- 

73 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


tude. Here is a group of expressions which he 
frequently uses in his letters:—“Jn Christ,” 
‘Christ in me,” “Christ in you.” He writes to the 
Colossian Christians that ‘Your life is hidden with 
Christ in God.”' ~His prayer for the Christians 
at Ephesus is “that Christ may make His home in 
your hearts through your faith.”? Now the prac- 
tical man might suggest that in using such language 
the writer is wandering off into a region that is 
shadowy, mystical, unreal; or else that he is em- 
ploying exaggerated and metaphorical expressions 
which cannot be related to the plain facts of life. 
But a closer study of St. Paul’s teaching will show 
such a criticism to be unfounded. St. Paul was the 
last man to indulge in meaningless metaphor. 
Moreover, when he speaks of Christ being in a 
man, he is describing the every-day experience of an 
ordinary Christian. This is no esoteric cult for a 
favored few; it is the natural yet wonderful result 
for every man who discovers Christ. “I pray that 
Christ may make His home in your heart.” Do you 
call yourself a Christian? In that case, says St. 
Paul, the Spirit of Christ will enter, if you will let 
Him, and inhabit the innermost shrine of your 
heart. He will reside in the secret places of your 
personality. And that not as occasional visitor, but 
as rightful and permanent Master. This is no ad- 
vanced teaching for a higher class. It is elemen- 
tary, fundamental. ‘Do ye not know,” writes the 
Apostle to the Corinthians, “that Jesus Christ is 
in you, except ye be counterfeits” ? 3 
ee Colette 3. paed via web han ara "i CORA nS. 
74 


THE REDEMPTION OF. PERSONALITY 


It is the purpose of the present chapter to take 
this thought of Christ’s indwelling and study its 
relation to the deeper parts of man’s being. Recent 
investigation has thrown much light on the nature 
and working of the human mind.*~ Amidst much 
that is obscure, this at least seems fairly clear, that 
a large part of our personality lies outside the region 
of our immediate consciousness. ‘There are vast 
mental stores sunk in those subterranean depths 
which seldom or never reach the level of our con- 
scious thought. ‘Buried below the surface in the dim 
recesses of the mind is all that we have ever learned, 
or seen, or heard, all the experiences through 
which we have passed, much that we have not 
thought of for many years, and perhaps may never 
think of in this world, but still there, ready to be 
called up into consciousness by something that re- 
calls it to our memory, or brought above the thresh- 
old by driving a shaft into it through such meth- 
ods as crystal-gazing or hypnotism.” * Our auto- 
matic actions show how large a part this subcon- 
scious self playsin ordinary life. There are 
countless little actions in everyday life that we all 
perform automatically. We walk upstairs, hang up 


1 No attempt is made in this chapter to deal with the newer 
findings of psychology and their relation to Christian experience. 
The reader is referred to the two excellent books, F. R. Barry’s 
Christianity and Psychology, and T.W. Pym’s Psychology and the 
Christian Life; and reference may be permitted to the writer’s 
Every-day Religion, chap. ix. The present chapter is concerned 
with one point only: that the Spirit of God can enter and “in- 
dwell” the whole of human personality. 

* Peake, Christianity: its Nature and its Truth, p. 70, and cf. 
p. 71 for the thought of the following paragraph. 


ris 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


our coats, wash our hands, and do all such things, 
almost invariably without any conscious thought. 
The skilful pianist does not think of every note he 
strikes, nor the oarsman of every stroke he rows, 
nor the athlete of every stride he takes. Fingers, 
arms, and legs work automatically; they obey the 
commands of the brain, but those commands are 
issued directly, and get themselves fulfilled with- 
out the aid of consciousness. Indeed, were it neces- 
sary that we should think out afresh every common 
action each time we perform it, our minds would 
certainly give way under the strain, and the world 
would rapidly be full of raving lunatics. So power- 
ful and so extensive is that realm which we call 
sub-consciousness. 

Here is another fact about our sub-consciousness, 
a fact which is almost frightening when we think 
out all that it implies. It is this. The character 
of this reservoir of personality is largely determined 
by all the so-called little things that we say and hear 
and think and do. Nothing goes unrecorded. 
Everything makes its impression on that wonderfully 
delicate receiver. Each choice, each action, each 
habit plays its part in fixing the character of that 
hidden, inner personality. It is a process that never 
stops. It is a work that has no respite. Not for 
an hour can we keep that hand from writing on 
that tablet, any more than we can hold back the 
Waves from their tireless beating on the shore. 
And it is the careless thought and the empty hour, 
no less than the strenuous work and sustained effort, 
that leave their mark. None can measure the result 

76 


THE REDEMPTION OF PERSONALITY 


of those silent times, those “interior conversa- 
tions,’ when the soul is fashioning its own temple 
with its own hands according to its own fancy. At 
those moments when the mind is left to itself, what 
sort of direction does it take? What path does it 
choose to wander down? What sort of thoughts 
does it select and cultivate? The gallery of the 
imagination is the usual resort of the unoccupied 
mind. What pictures have we hanging there? 
And which are the ones that hang on the line and 
to which we habitually return? Each visit to that 
gallery leaves its mark upon our inner self. Every 
picture records its reflection on the mind that seeks 
it out. To every impression the sensitive person- 
ality responds. It may be stained or purified; it 
may be degraded or ennobled; the one thing it 
cannot do is to remain unchanged. 

Moreover, our real character is the character 
of this inner personality. It is largely invisible 
to other men, it is often veiled even from ourselves. 
So long as we are in full possession of our will- 
power, we may be able to direct, control, and even 
to a certain extent to hide, the tendency of those © 
inner forces. But in times of weakness or illness, 
when the will-power lessens or fails completely, 
what then? Why then we stand revealed as we 
are; the draperies drop off and the soul is seen in 
all its nakedness. There is a remarkable passage 
in Gairdner’s Life of D. M. Thornton—a name 
of imperishable fame in the student and missionary 
world—describing how, during his last delirium, 
Thornton unwittingly revealed the inner recesses of 

77 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


his soul and displayed the unsullied picture of a 
heart wholly set upon God and His kingdom. 
“What, then, were the words which, throughout 
that livelong night, were poured forth before that 
tribunal? Not one syllable that was unworthy of 
his high calling and his sacred profession; nay, not 
a syllable—if we except a few thoughtful inquiries 
for his wife, his child, his family at home, his nurses 
—that was not about that one grand passion of his 
life—The Work. That passion held him even to 
the last moments.”’* Such a test may come to any 
of us. What would that test show? What would 
men see, what does God see, at an unveiling of our 
real personality? While all this is true, and tre- 
mendously true, I do not wish, by a too emphatic 
statement of its truth, to suggest that we are wholly 
responsible for all the content of our sub-con- 
sciousness. It is, I think, quite clear that we are 
not. It may be that the main features of the 
“under” self are fashioned by the conscious self. 
At the same time much must steal down into those 
lower regions through the avenues of sight and 
sound, which the sentinel of consciousness does not 
mark or cannot stop. While the outpourings of 
unconsciousness may generally reveal the real self, 
they do, on occasion, display strange and fantastic 
features which are in no sense representative of the 
true personality. But this qualification does not 
affect the main argument of this chapter, that the 
greater part of our real selves lies below the sur- 

* D.M. Thornton: A Study in Missionary Ideals and Methods, 
by the Rev. W.H. T. Gairdner, D276. 

78 


THE REDEMPTION OF PERSONALITY 


face, yet has its character determined from the 
higher level of consciousness. 

As we stand gazing down into the unplumbed 
depths of our own personality, we are appalled at 
the awful potentialities of evil that lurk therein. 
We are dismayed to realize how weak is our will, 
how little control we have over those silent, sub- 
terranean forces. Dismayed we may be, but we 
have no right to despair. For it is just here that 
the Christ enters with a wonderful message of hope. 
“TI will come in to him.’? ‘Abide in Me, and I 
foevou, vo Lf anyeman love Me)! ... My Bather 
will love him, and We will come unto him and make 
our home with him.’* ‘The Spirit of God dwelleth 
ingyvou, * 

There are no depths of personality that Christ 
by His Spirit cannot fathom and influence. There 
are no tracts of those sub-conscious regions where 
He cannot tread. Provided only that we are will- 
ing, He will enter in, and bring with Him a fresh 
and cleaner atmosphere that will penetrate to every 
corner. He will control those ungoverned forces, 
not as by magic or hypnotism, but by charging the 
calcined fibers of will with the mystic current 
of His own. He will guard the threshold of that 
dim and dark recess, and turn aside the evil before 

S IRCV. 111, 20; ? John xv. 4. “.Jonn  Kiv. 23. 

* I.Cor. itt. 16. Such passages are not purely metaphorical. 
“We are justified in saying that there is a reality corresponding 
to the language which speaks of Divine indwelling. And the 
tendency of thought at present is rather to strengthen than to 


weaken the sense of this reality."—W. Sanday, Christolomes: 
Ancient and Modern, p. 152. 


79 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


it gets a footing. Those large spaces, empty and 
waste, He will fill with sweetness and purity and 
light, till the wilderness shall blossom as the rose. 
Let Christ govern here, at the very center; and then, 
by all the laws of psychology, our Christian life 
shall cease to be a thing of forced choice and la- 
bored virtue, and shall become instead something 
instinctive, natural, spontaneous. It is one thing to 
know Christ after the flesh, to revere His ideals, to 
learn from His teaching; it is something quite other 
to enthrone Him as Lord of the heart, to become so 
joined with Him in spiritual union as to find that 
“closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands 
and feet.” 

And is such deep, mystic experience unheard of, 
unreasonable? Assuredly not. Look at the 
analogy of human relationships. Think of the 
closeness of the bond between two kindred person- 
alities. Think of the power of love to penetrate, 
to understand, to influence, to transform. On the 
surface, men seem to be sharply separated individ- 
uals, but “there is evidence of mysterious connec- 
tions below the reach of consciousness; the separat- 
ing wall of personality seems built on arches.’ 

Now, if such can be the influence of man on man, 
with all the limitations of sin and time and space, 
what may not be the influence of the Spirit of God 
on the depths of human personality, acting with- 
out these limitations? The thought opens up a 
wonderful vista of undreamed possibilities for lives 
where God is allowed to have free course. The 

* Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. i. p. 165. 
80 


THE REDEMPTION OF PERSONALITY 


condition is of course essential. God will never 
thrust Himself into our personality, unwelcomed 
and uninvited. We on our side must lift the latch 
and ask Him to pass over the threshold. If His 
Spirit is to fill and permeate the deep places of our 
being, He must be asked, and allowed, to enter 
through the door of consciousness. Once there, He 
will leaven, and mould, and transform, on a scale 
far out of proportion to the feebleness of our con- 
scious desires. But we must give Him the freedom 
of our personality. We must learn how to give a 
Christ-ward bent to all our powers of imagination, 
of “suggestion,” of will. If we can do that, pa- 
tiently, and sincerely, then we have every right to 
expect the Spirit of Jesus to fill our whole being 
down to the very bottom of its sub-conscious depths. 
What this Divine filling might mean for life and 
service God knows, and we may faintly guess. 


ia 


4; he 8 Pan} 
qv Ps fh 


¢, 





CHAPTER VI 
THE HIGHEST WORK 








CHAPTER VI 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


“When we think about prayer, we think, as a rule, instinctively 
of its limitations; the mind of Christ seemed always to be occupied 
with its possibilities.’—J. H. OtpHAM. 

“If there should arise one utterly believing man, the history 
of the world would be changed.” 


“Orare est laborare.” 


THERE is a lesson which the Christian Church 
is slowly and painfully learning. It is that the 
highest service a man can render to his fellow- 
man is to pray for him. Until a man has learnt 
to intercede, he is not much use to the Kingdom 
of God. Work backed up by prayer is too often 
the practice, if not the ideal, of the Church. If 
the world is to be won, that order must be reversed, 
and the Church learn to depend on prayer backed 
up by work. Christian work that thinks and plans 
and bustles and toils, but forgets to pray, is an 
almost pathetic spectacle. ‘Men who desert their 
prayers in order to get more quickly to what they 
fondly call work, are like a stoker on a liner, who 
should put out his furnace fires and try to tow the 
ship himself.” Yet it is not altogether surprising 
that great men of prayer are few and far be- 
tween. To become a man of prayer is to run 

85 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


clean counter to the spirit of the age. The Western 
world glories in the strenuous life. It bows down 
to the idols of energy and force. What does it 
want with mystics and dreamers who waste their 
time’ in prayer? Yet, if Christianity be trues 
will probably turn out in the end that the dreamers 
have done more than the hustlers. It is they who 
make the world a better place, for it is they who 
have learnt to set in motion that Power which makes 
for righteousness. 

It is important to realize that prayer, in the 
sense in which we are now considering it, is some- 
thing far more than a subjective spiritual exercise. 
- According to the teaching of Christ, and accord- 
ing to the witness of human experience, prayer 
is a force which achieves objective results. It 
actually causes things to happen which otherwise 
would not happen. The Biblical theory of prayer 
is that it is a force at work. ‘“‘Very effectual in 
its working is the prayer of a righteous man.’ 
This is a fact of tremendous significance. Some 
of its further meanings we shall presently attempt 
to analyze. For the present let us note the two 
main foundations for the statement that prayer 
is a working force. In the first place, it is indis- 
putable that Christ Himself attached the greatest 
importance to intercessory prayer. He not only 
taught men to pray, but He Himself was dependent 
on prayer.” This dependence was a part of His 
real humanity. His prayers were not only the 


* James v. 16. 
* Cf. Heb. v. 7, and constant references in the Gospels. 
86 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


medium of a holy intercourse, they were also the 
expression of a definite sense of want. It would 
appear from the records that the power which He 
wielded in the physical as in the spiritual world 
was purchased by prayer. That power seems to 
have been given Him by His Father, as He needed 
it, and as He asked for it. For Him prayer was the 
real battlefield of life. He fought His fight and 
won the victory in the secret place, and then moved 
among men with the calm power which belongs to 
one who is already conqueror.’ In view of His own 
experience, it is not to be wondered at that in His 
teaching He laid such stress on the importance of 
prayer. He was at pains to make His disciples 
understand that in prayer they are given a power 

“Which moves the Hand which moves the world 

To bring salvation down.” 

It is a subject on which He used the very plainest 
language; He seemed anxious to prevent any 
possibility of men misconceiving His words. ‘‘Ask, 
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every 
one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh 
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be 
opened.’’? ‘‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, 
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in 
the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My Name, 

1 See, for instance, John xi. 41, 42. It is clear from the narra- 
tive that the raising of Lazarus was in answer to prayer. It is also 
clear that the result was already certain as soon as Christ had 
prayed (in secret), and before He reached the tomb. See also 
John xvii. which is one long intercessory prayer, 

Sake. xi.s 94710. 

87 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


that will I do." ‘The daring sayings of Jesus 
regarding the power of faith and of prayer entitle, 
or rather compel, us to attribute to man a sover- 
eignty over the world exercised by faith. Every- 
thing is possible for the man who can say with au- 
thority to a mountain, ‘Be thou removed and cast 
info the: sea.” 2 

The other immediate point to notice is this. 
Prevailing prayer is an indisputable fact of Chris- 
tian experience. Explain it how you will, the fact 
remains. Ever since God first revealed Himself as 
a God to Whom man may speak, and especially 
since Christ taught that God is Father, men have 
prayed, and prayer has been answered.? Each 
country tells the same tale. Trace the causes of 
the great Christian movements in history; search 
into the story of foreign missions; examine the 
records of the heroes of Christian enterprise— 
such men, to take a few names almost at random, 
as Raymund Lull, John Wesley, Henry Martyn, 
Shaftesbury, George Miiller, Hudson Taylor—in- 
terrogate the men who to-day are doing yeoman 
service in the Kingdom of God, and you will find 
that in all cases the secret of success is the same, 
and that is believing, persistent, expectant prayer. 

In spite of our Lord’s teaching, and the seem- 


* John xiv. 13, 14. Cf. also Luke xi. 1-8 (parable of the Friend 
at Midnight), Luke xviii. 1-8 (parable of the Unjust Judge). 

* Arthur Titius. 

* It is a noteworthy fact that there are 657 definite requests for 
prayer in the Bible, not including the Psalms, and 454 definitely 
recorded answers. For these figures the present writer is indebted 
to Mr. R. P. Wilder. 


88 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


ingly clear witness of experience, not a few are held 
back from intercessory prayer by the very real in- 
tellectual difficulties to which it gives rise. Is such 
prayer reasonable? Is it thinkable that I can really 
affect a man’s life, by praying for him? Is it con- 
ceivable that the prayer of a weak, finite, sinful 
man, can influence the purposes of the unchanging 
God? Is there room for prayer in a universe 
governed by immutable laws? Let it be said at 
once that no complete and final answer has yet 
been found, or is likely to be found, to these ques- 
tions. Prayer is a mystery which, in this world 
at least, we shall never wholly fathom. But while 
it is not possible to demonstrate the working of 
prayer as if it was a mathematical sum, we can at 
least note certain facts about God and man and 
the universe which are sufficient to show that prayer 
is reasonable. 

First of all, let it be clearly realized that God 
is free in His own universe. This is important. 
Of recent years we have become so obsessed with 
the thought of the iron sequences of physical law, 
that we have almost forgotten the fact that God 
is free. He is not bound down to any particular 
series of sequences. He is free, within whatever 
limits (in any case self-imposed) His creation of 
mankind involve, to carry out His plans by whatever 
chain of causation He may think best. And He has 
also, within certain limits, given freedom to man.* 

If, then, God is not irrevocably tied to particular 


1 We assume here, in spite of the determinists, that human 
freedom is real and not merely apparent. 


89 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


modes of action, and if man is a free agent, it 
becomes conceivable that God, although His pur- 
poses are fixed, has left room for man’s co-opera- 
tion in carrying them out. No doubt He foresees 
the final goal, but it would seem that He leaves 
undecided the intermediate steps which lead there. 
No doubt also He could, if He so willed, dispense 
altogether with human co-operation; but in point 
of fact, it appears that, in certain cases at least, 
He waits for man’s willingness, that is to say, He 
waits for man of his own accord to ask Him before 
He moves on to the accomplishment of His ends. 
To put it in other words, ‘““When a heart goes out 
to the infinite Spirit of God in prayer, an actual 
force is exerted, for which God makes allowance, 
to which He can give effect, which He expects and 
welcomes as a contribution to the activity in which 
He is engaged. He made us free to act in order 
that we might act with Him. He counts our 
prayers as part of the sum total of energies.”’* God 
waiting for man’s willingness—this would seem to 
be the ultimate raison d’étre of intercessory prayer. 
The negative side is often obvious: God will not 
force man’s will, He will not compel the sinner to 
become the saint. But the positive side is equally 
true. There is a man, a man perhaps whom I know 
well, whose heart is wholly unresponsive to the love 
of God. May it not be that my willingness is an 
essential factor in the process of that man’s finding 
God? There may be, there doubtless are, other 

* R. F. Horton, Article on “Intercession,” in the Student World, 
January, I9Q10, p. 21. 

90 


————————— EE 


ye will (it is a strong word—‘resolve, 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


factors; but it is more than possible that my will- 
ingness, my intense desire towards God for him, 
will just turn the scale. It is not that I have to 
persuade God to be gracious to him—that is un- 
thinkable; but it is quite conceivable that my 
passionate longing for him, my faith going out to 
God on his behalf, and, as it were, in his stead, will 
just pull down the last barrier and the way shall lie 
open for God to enter into his life. Or there is a 
country, a nation, lying in the darkness of ignorance 
of God. Perhaps God cannot fulfill His purpose of 
Love for that nation until I, and another, and an- 
other, have learnt to will His purpose there with 
tremendous intensity. There is a sense in which 
Christendom must supply a vicarious willingness for 
heathendom. Is it too much to say that the world 
will have to wait for God until the Church has 
learnt what it means to pray? “Ye shall ask what 
AeA C OnLy 
wish”), and it shall be done for you,’* In other 
words, when you have learnt to will what God 
wills, the thing shall be done. 

All this may certainly be mysterious, but it can- 
not justly be called a violation of the Divine order. 
Prayer only becomes illogical and impossible when 
you deny the freedom of God or of man or of both. 
Given this freedom—and most of the facts of life 
and nature go to show it—then prayer is reason- 
able. If a man prays with faith, and brings heal- 
ing to someone diseased, or the light of God to 
someone in the darkness of sin, that is no break- 

a LI OTEK Va he 
QI 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


ing of a law of the universe, it is only a ‘“‘deter- 
mination of certain forces in the general working 
of the universe by the exercise of a power which 
God Himself has made and allowed for.” There 
are, moreover, experiences in human life which 
throw light on the working of prayer. There is, 
for instance, the fact of telepathy. Recent psycho- 
logical research is on the eve of establishing—some 
would say, has established—the reality of telepathic 
communication. On the surface we may seem to be 
sharply separated individuals, but, as we saw in 
the last chapter, “‘there is evidence of mysterious 
connections below the reach of consciousness, the 
separating wall of personality seems built on 
arches.”* And these connections down below the 
surface are quite independent of physical proximity. 
‘When you get down beneath the surface of your 
own self, it is a most mysterious truth; you come 
into contact with other people there; you touch the 
wires of communication which connect you with 
people far away, you actually influence the thought 
and feeling of persons on the other side of the 
globe. It is one of the mysterious facts of modern 
psychology, but it is indisputable; and it reveals the 
truth which we have held all along, that by praying 
for people we directly help them; that if you give 
yourself to prayer for a person, we will say, in the 
Mission-field, the very act of prayer brings you to 
the point where telepathic communication is carried 
right through to the soul far away; and that fact, 
which is familiar to us all, is becoming a scientific 


*Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. i. p. 165. 
92 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


fact, a psychological fact established by inquiry, 
experiment, and verification.’”* 

With regard to the reasonableness of prayer, 
there is one other fact, which, for anyone who 
accepts the truth of the Christian revelation, 1s 
convincing. That fact is the Fatherhood of God. 
Granted that God is Father, then it 1s not only 
reasonable to pray to Him, but it would be utterly 
irrational not to do so. When Christ in His teach- 
ing laid such emphasis on the Fatherhood of God, 
He must have intended His listeners to interpret 
His meaning in the light of all that is highest and 
best in human experience. No human fatherhood 
or sonship is complete without frank and trustful 
intercourse; on the one side confidence in asking, on 
the other love and wisdom in giving. And such 
intercourse reaches its highest ideal when the son 
so learns to know his father’s character that he only 
asks for that which the father is delighted to give. 
The Divine Fatherhood may well mean much more 
than this, but it can hardly mean less. If God is 
Father, then surely He must be even more ready to 
hear than we to pray. It must—let us say it rever- 
ently—be a delight to Him when His children begin 
to show an understanding of His purposes, and come 
and plead with Him for their accomplishment. 

We may pass on now to examine briefly some 
of the conditions of prevailing intercession, con- 
ditions laid down by our Lord, and verified by 
human experience. 

Rk. F. Horton, Prayer and the Divine Source of Power, p. 6. 

93 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


(1) The first and most fundamental of these 
conditions is prayer in “the name of Jesus.” 
‘“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will 
Pdon tr.) | What exactly’ did’ Christ meanmny 
this statement? ‘The Biblical usage of the word 
name will make this clear. In the Old Testament, 
the ‘name of Jehovah” is used as a concise expres- 
sion for the revealed character of God.? Similarly 
in the New Testament the “name of Jesus” briefly 
sums up His personality as made known. In fact 
the “name of Jesus” is almost identical with the 
“person of Jesus.” Therefore to pray “in the 
name of Jesus’ means to pray “in the person of 
Jesus.” And to pray in the person of Jesus means 
that the motive and the object of the intercessor 
will be inspired by contact with Christ’s personality. 
This contact of personalities, ours with Christ’s, 
we have already seen to be the fundamental 
thing in living a Christian life. And this contact 
is to govern all thought and action, including prayer. 
So then prayer ‘“‘in the name of Jesus’ does not 
mean merely tacking on a pious formula to the end 
of every petition. It does not even involve the 
actual speaking of the Name. What it does involve 
is a close heart-to-heart sympathy with the Person 
for Whom the Name stands: loving what He loves, 
willing what He wills, sharing His thought of God 
and His purposes for the world. 

To pray “in the name of Jesus” is to pray in 
accordance with the will of God, which is an indis- 


+ Jonny Riv, 132 CFs also uxv 10, .R Vi. 123, 24, 
* Cf. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, art. “Name,” vol. iii. 
pp. 478 ff. 
04 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


pensable condition of right praying. In the recorded 
prayers of our Lord Himself there always sounds 
this note of perfect harmony with His Father’s will. 
Such harmony is a sine qua non of all true inter- 
cession. And just in so far as a man is “‘in Christ,” 
enjoying that fellowship of which we spoke in the 
first chapters, so far will his thought and prayer be 
in line with the will of God. Moreover, be it re- 
membered that praying for God’s will to be done 
is not the mere passive acceptance of something 
already finished; rather is it the concentrated passion 
to get that will done on earth, to see it translated 
from purpose into achievement. The third petition 
of the Lord’s Prayer implies an act, not of resigna- 
tion, but of strenuous spiritual energy. | 

The first condition, of praying in the name of 
Jesus, strictly speaking includes all the conditions 
of prevailing prayer, in that no prayer can conceiv- 
ably prevail which is out of harmony with the mind 
of Christ. Prayer is ultimately based on character, 
and a Christ-like character comes, as we have al- 
ready seen, only through the contagion of Christ’s 
personality. Let no man think he can learn to pray 
anywhere else than in the School of Christ. With 
this proviso, we may proceed to examine some of 
the other conditions of prayer which, although 
really inherent in the first condition, may for con- 
venience’ sake be studied separately. 

(11) It seems an obvious thing to say that faith 
in God is an indispensable condition of effective 
prayer. Yet if ever there was a time when it 
was necessary to reassert the importance of this 

95 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


condition it is to-day. There are plenty who pray, 
but there are few who pray with the kind of faith 
which Christ evidently intended men to have. We 
only half believe that “God is, and that He is a 
rewarder of them that seek after Him.”? We 
limit God by the poverty of our expectations; we 
measure what He is likely to do by the dwarfed 
human standard of what we like to call reasonable 
probability. “The natural and reverent way of 
approaching God is not to settle beforehand the 
limit of His power, not to conclude that He can 
only grant this or that request, but to take Christ 
at His word, to tell God everything, to come as 
a little child to a Father.”? We must somehow, 
if we would become efficient intercessors, recover 
Christ’s sense of what God is, and of what God will 
and can do. We must learn to expect according 
to the measure revealed by the faith and achieve- 
ment of Jesus of Nazareth. He lived by, and 
acted upon, the conviction that God is dependable. 
Prayer for us as for Hin, is gloriously rational, 
because God is absolutely dependable. ‘Prayer 
always has an answer, because we can always depend 
upon the character of God.’* Therefore, faith is 
justified. 

(111) Another condition on which Christ laid 
great stress was persistency in prayer. Two of the 
most striking of His parables, those of the Friend 
at Midnight* and the Unjust Judge,® were spoken 
to illustrate the extreme importance of persistency 


we bleb. xis. 6: 
* Forbes Robinson, College and Ordination Addresses, p. 9. 
* Jeeta Oldham, “Luke. xi, 5-13. ° Luke xviii. 1-8. 


96 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


in prayer. In these parables our Lord takes some 
homely and almost sordid facts of human life to 
illustrate what He is at pains to teach—that where 
a single or half-hearted petition will fail, unflag- 
ging importunity will succeed. Says He in effect, 
because there is no answer, or because there appears 
to be no answer to your prayer, that is no reason 
at all to give up praying; on the contrary, it is a 
summons to you to redouble your efforts. Pray 
on to the end, and the answer will come somehow. 
It is impossible to avoid asking ourselves why Christ 
attached such importance to importunity in prayer. 
Quite obviously we cannot persuade God into giving 
that which He otherwise would not give; prayer 
is not a sort of battery to force God’s will. The 
reason must be sought elsewhere. For one thing, 
as we have seen already, importunate intercession 
may be an important factor in another’s redemp- 
tion." And two further suggestions may be offered. 
In the first place, persistency may be necessary in 
order that character may keep pace with prayer. 
Unwearying persistence in prayer may well be an 
essential factor in fitting me to receive that for 
which I plead. God delays to answer, not because 
He does not hear or does not love, but that He may 
thereby create the condition under which it shall 
be possible for Him to answer. The other sugges- 
tion is this. We are not in a position to judge as 
to the fruitlessness of prayers. The answer may 
come in a form quite different from that which we 
expected, so different indeed that for years it may 
remain unrecognized. Or we may never live to 


* See above, p. 90. 
H 97 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


see the answer at all. So that in any case there is 
no excuse for abandoning our prayers. “Keep on 
asking . . . and ye shall receive.’ 

(iv) One other condition of intercession may be 
quite briefly noticed. It is the need of knowledge 
and sympathy and imagination. You set yourself 
perhaps to pray for God’s Kingdom in China. But 
how can you pray with any effect if you know 
nothing of the local conditions—the general trend 
of national ideas and ideals, the local circum- 
stances and atmosphere, the particular opportuni- 
ties for or hindrances to Missionary work? Or 
you are praying for an individual. If your prayer 
is really to help him, you must somehow think your- 
self into his mind and his environment. Put your- 
self in his place; picture, so far as you can, his 
attitude and outlook; imagine to yourself his special 
temptations and possibilities. Seek from God a 
loving intuition into the deepest needs of his heart. 
Such divining sympathy will save you from praying 
at random. 

(v) Lastly, it may not be superfluous to point 
out that success in intercession can only be attained 
through constant and painstaking practice. It is 
no easy thing to pray; prayer is in fact the most 
dificult and arduous work in which we can engage. 
The man who wants to pray is not miraculously 
exempted from the universal laws of human achieve- 
ment; his faculty for prayer, like his ear for music, 
or his talent for painting, must be trained and de- 
veloped. ‘We can,” as has been truly said, “no 
more pray at will, without having carefully acquired 


* Luke xi. 9. The tense is the present. 
98 


THE HIGHEST WORK 


the capacity, than we can perform on a musical in- 
strument that we have never seen nor handled 
before.”* We must be prepared for frequent fail- 
ure and consequent dissatisfaction. But any time 
and pains are worth while if we may so fit ourselves 
to engage in this the highest work of all. 

The modern world needs Christians who can 
pray. More men are needed of the spiritual fiber 
of the late Forbes Robinson, who, more perhaps 
than any of his generation, had learnt the secret 
of prevailing intercession. ‘“‘It is,’ he once wrote, 
“worth while making any efforts, however desper- 
ate, to learn to pray.” And again: “As I grow 
older I become more diffdent, and now, often, 
when I desire the Truth to come home to any man, 
I say to myself, ‘If I have him here he will spend 
half an hour with me. Instead, I will spend that 
half-hour in prayer for him.’’’ If that tremen- 
dous belief in the power of prayer were as common 
as it is at present uncommon, the Church would 
move on more rapidly to the winning of the world. 

“The weary ones had rest, the sad had joy 
That day and wondered how— 


The plowman singing at his work had prayed, 
Lord, bless them now. 

Away in foreign fields they wondered how 
Their simple word had power— 

At home the Christians two or three had met 
To pray an hour. 

Yes, we are always wondering, wondering how! 
Because we do not see 

Someone—perhaps unknown and far away— 


On bended knee.” 


1 Illingworth, Christian Character, p. 128. 
? Forbes Robinson, Letters to his Friends, p. 29. 


99 









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CHAPTER VII 
SERVICE 





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RAT Ady 





CHAPTER VII 


SERVICE 


“At all times God, the Lover of Man, clothes Himself with 
Man, to the attainment of the salvation of men.”—-CLEMENT oF 
ALEXANDRIA, C. 200 A.D. 


‘ 


“... We must share, if we would keep, 
That good thing from above; 

Ceasing to give, we cease to have— 
Such is the law of Love.” 


ARCHBISHOP TRENCH. 


“Cui servire regnare est.’—St. AUGUSTINE, c. 400 A.D. 


Lire cannot be lived in a vacuum. As St. Paul 
once said, ““No man liveth unto himself, and no 
man dieth unto himself.’ There are no excep- 
tions to that generalization. Whether we will or 
no, every day that passes sees us thrown into con- 
tact with our fellow-men, affecting our environ- 
ment, influencing those who cross our path. Life 
is, inevitably and for every one, a motley heap of 
all sorts and kinds of relationships. And any seri- 
ous view of life is obliged to face the question, 
What, if any, is to be the great and governing 
principle which shall determine the nature of these 
relationships? Christianity answers this question 
quite plainly. According to the rule of Christ, a 


* Rom. xiv. 7. 


103 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


man’s relationship to his fellow-men shall be, above 
all else, one of service. 

Let there be no mistake about it. The Son of 
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and He took infinite pains to impress that ideal 
upon the first disciples, and through them on all 
who should afterwards believe on His Name. 
When, after the Last Supper, He girded Himself 
with a towel and proceeded to wash His disciples’ 
feet, His action marked a new departure in human 
history. Up to that time the world had said, as 
the natural man still says, It is more blessed to 
receive than to give. Not so, says Christ. He who 
learns from Me will discover that it is more blessed 
to give than to receive. Not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, is the mark of real greatness. 
‘Whosoever would become great among you, shall 
be your servant; and whosoever would be first 
among you shall be bondservant of all.” ‘“Who- 
soever would save his life shall lose it; but whoso- 
ever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s 
shall save it.’” 

This is one of the things in which the Christian 
and the non-Christian ideal stand in the sharpest 
contrast. The man of the world deems, and from 
his point of view justly enough, that he does his 
duty sufficiently if he loves those who love him, 
and serves those who would serve him. But the 
man who takes Christ’s yoke upon him thereby lays 
himself under an infinitely wider obligation. His 
orders are, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 

malay ears Sad ao A ® Mark viii. 35. 
104 


SERVICE 


self, with all the far-reaching consequences for 
service which that command implies. A man once 
asked Christ for a definition of that obligation, 
perchance hoping that his neighbors might turn 
out to be few. Christ’s answer was surprisingly 
and disappointingly inclusive. In the parable of 
the Good Samaritan,’ He made it abundantly clear 
that the law of love knows neither exception nor 
limit. 

This obligation of service is closely and logically 
connected with those other facts of the Christian 
life which we have already examined. If “‘salva- 
tion’ is not merely a future thing,’ neither is it 
in the least a selfish thing. A man is “saved” 
simply that he may serve. His faith is not a pass- 
port to a sheltered and private garden where, 
unmolested and irresponsible, he may enjoy a 
cloistered peace. It is a commission which thrusts 
him out on to life’s highway, there to succor the 
tired and halting travelers. He has received a 
revelation from God that He may bring light to 
those who are walking in darkness. He has been 
rescued by Christ Himself that he may be free to 
loose the bond of others. He has drunk of the 
water of life that he may refresh those who are 
wandering in the thirsty desert. “The Christian 
religion, like the Christian character, is not a de- 
tached, isolated, self-sufficient possession, but a form 
of power, an application of strength to weakness, 
of sight to blindness, of the soul that has found the 
heights to the soul of the world below.” ° 


1 Luke x. 25-37. ? Compare above, p. 40. 
® E.G. Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Christian Character, p. 273. 


105 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


It may be well, at this point, to emphasize the 
fact that the “service” owing from a Christian is 
not necessarily something which would be commonly 
regarded as “religious” at all. It is, in the first 
instance, a motive, an attitude, a point of view, a 
way of thinking and doing, that should characterize 
all his ordinary work and daily occupations. To 
be able, in some degree, to see God, to worship God, 
to express God, in his every-day labor, his family 
circle, his common relations ips, is the heart and 
soul of a Christian’s “service.” And, in the last 
resort, such lives are God’s media for giving Him- 
self to men. 

It is one of the noteworthy features of God’s 
government of the world, that human co-operation 
seems to be essential to the execution of His pur- 
poses. In the last chapter we observed the bearing 
of this fact on prayer. And it has an equally vital 
significance for service. God reaches men through 
men. No doubt He can, and occasionally does, 
make Himself known without any human medium 
whatsoever. But as a general rule His message 
goes through a human channel. The current of 
Divine Life has to flow over human transmitters. 
If this is so, the privilege and responsibility of the 
servant of God are immeasurable. To reflect God 
becomes the highest function of personality. Each 
man, with his own personality, has a separate work 
to do, a distinctive service to render. Other men 

* The writer has tried to work this point out in detail in his 
book Every-day Religion, 

106 


SERVICE 

cannot do the work for which you or I are respon- 
sible. Each has his own circle, each maintains rela- 
tionships where others have no access; and it may 
well be that God is waiting for the vantage-ground 
of our personality in order to touch the lives we 
touch. We may not always be conscious of the 
process. But we may be quite sure that both uncon- 
scious and conscious influence depend directly on a 
deliberate willingness that our personality shall be 
at the disposal of the purposes of God. 

It is fatally easy to acquiesce in a lower ideal of 
service. The good is often the enemy of the best. 
It is a common temptation to good men to rest 
content with service which is unselfish indeed, but 
which carries in it no distinctive revealing of the 
Master to Whom they belong. “To feed the hungry 
and clothe the naked is no small part of what Christ 
asks of His disciples; yet man cannot live by bread 
alone. . . . Weare told on very high authority that 
you must make people comfortable before you can 
make them Christians; but it was not the way the 
Apostles went to work.” * Philanthropy may be a 
promise of the Kingdom, but it is not necessarily an 
ambassador of the King. Organization may lay the 
pipes and build the reservoir, but all the work is 
fruitless until the living waters flow. Men need 
sympathy, help, advice, encouragement; but most of 
all they need Christ. On all sides men are hungry, 
weary, unsatisfied, for lack of the living Christ— 


“Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be kings, 
Hearing their one hope with an empty wonder, 
Sadly contented with a show of things.” 


jolt bePeiles. Leclesia) Discens,) pp. 278, 279. 
107 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


And so they will be doomed to remain, unless and 
until Christ’s disciples shall be faithful to their 
trust. “He that hath the Son hath life; he that 
hath not the Son of God hath not life.’ ? This is 
an unqualified statement of the biggest fact within 
the ken of humanity. And a man must face this 
fact, with all its tremendous meaning, if he would 
be of use to Christ and His Kingdom. His service 
will depend on his conviction that Christ is indis- 
pensable to the human race and to every single 
individual member of it. He must face the sight of 
goodness better than his own and still believe it can 
never reach its fullness save in Christ. He must 
stand undismayed before the greatest mental power, 
and remember that the mind where Christ is not 
is marred by a fatal flaw. He must watch the life 
that seems so rich and strong and free, and realize 
that lameness and loss must come if Christ be 
absent. Those serve best whose life is based on the 
unwavering certainty that Christ wants men, and 
that men need Christ. 

Suppose that a man has caught a vision of this 
ideal of service, that he longs not to hoard but to 
give what he has of Christ. What exactly is he to 
do? How is he to set about his task? He will 
remember, to start with, that to go on active service 
for Christ it is not necessary to become a clergyman 
or a missionary, nor need he display certain conven- 
tions of language or garb or demeanor. The less 
conventional or professional he is, the better ser- 
vice will he render. It is perfectly true that a 


? J John v. 12. 
108 


SERVICE 


great many more clergy and missionaries are badly 
wanted. But what is wanted even more are men 
and women of all professions and positions and 
occupations, who will carry the savor of Christ into 
all the relationships of their lives. A life that, by 
word or deed, compels men to think of Jesus Christ, 
in the home, in the office, in the lecture-room, in the 
street and on the train, at work and at play—that 
is the chief factor in the progress of the Kingdom 
of God. If the work of communicating Christ is to 
be left to the clergy or the “professional” Christian 
workers generally, then good-bye to the hope of 
winning the world. The witness of history is unmis- 
takable here. No less an authority than Harnack 
has stated, “The cause of the marvelous growth of 
the early Church lay not in her apostles, apologists, 
or martyrs, but in the faithful daily life of the 
average common Christian.” 

It is not essential to become a Sunday-school 
teacher, or a ‘Social worker,” or to teach or to 
speak in public at all. Such tasks are useful, but not 
the only channels of service. There need be no 
“professionalism” of any kind whatsoever. What is 
essential is the true spirit of service, the willingness 
to serve Christ for men’s sake and to serve men for 
Christ’s sake. Given that spirit, that temper which 
can inspire life’s relationships with new meaning, the 
opportunities of service will follow in abundance. 
The’ problem of “Christian work” will suddenly 
become immensely simple. There is a character- 
istic anecdote of Mr. Spurgeon which relates that 
a man once came to him and asked him for some 

109 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 
Church work. ‘What is your trade?” asked Mr. 


Spurgeon. “An engine-driver,’ was the reply. 
nis “the \stoker:a, Christian?) ) No. Saye 
well, then,’ said Mr. Spurgeon, “there’s your 
Church work!” 3 

If Christian service, then, is at once so simple 
and so complex, it is evidently erroneous to employ 
ordinary standards in attempting to gauge the im- 
portance of this or that “sphere” of Christianity. 
The clerk in his store may well have as great a work 
before him as the evangelist in the heathen land, or 
the missionary secretary in his office. The invalid on 
a sick bed may contribute as much to the Kingdom 
as the famous preacher in his pulpit. The soldier 
in his barracks, the sailor on his ship, may achieve 
as much for God as the theologian in his study. To 
every man is given a certain circle whom he and he 
alone can touch; and no man can do more than 
charge that contact with the current of life divine. 
This quiet, unobtrusive, personal service will de- 
mand genuine humility and untiring patience. As 
Henry Drummond truly says: “We must learn 
again to be content with aiming at units. Every 
atom of the universe can act on every other atom, 
but only through the atom next it. And if a man 
would act upon every other man, he can do so best 
by acting one at a time upon those beside him. The 
true worker’s world is a unit.” ? | 

While all this is perfectly true, and men can and 
do serve God’s Kingdom, in a hundred different 
ways, simply, quietly, unobtrusively, it is also true 

' Drummond, The New Evangelism, and other Papers, p. 192. 

IIQ 


SERVICE 


that more Christians are desperately needed for 
“Church work” in the narrower sense of the term, 
and are often very hard to find. There are people 
who would accept the name of Christian who seem 
to regard any active work on behalf of their religion 
as an “extra,” a sort of work of supererogation 
suitable enough for those who have the leisure or 
the inclination, but hardly to be regarded as con- 
stituting a serious demand on the ordinary person. 
They are gravely wrong. The New Testament 
knows nothing about Christian service as an 
“extra”; a Christian who is not “serving” is a 
contradiction in terms, like a soldier whose only 
soldiering is to put on a uniform. The Churches 
to-day cannot get their work adequately done be- 
cause of the number of their members who “sit at 
ease in Zion,” unwilling to take a laboring oar as a 
club leader, a Sunday-school teacher, a district visi- 
tor, or in any of the other unexciting but immensely 
valuable means of Christian service. 
profess to call themselves Christians should awake 
There is, indeed, grave need to-day that all who 
to the personal responsibility which their profession 
lays upon them. Never was there more religious 
activity than at the present time; but also never 
was there greater need of a new and widespread 
spirit of personal service. Oftentimes we shrink 
back from that service, knowing something of its 
difficulty and its cost. We feel unworthy to aspire 
to such a task as that, or we are held back by a sense 
of our own utter impotence. How can such as we 
really win men for God? Is there any way in which 
Don 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


we can fit ourselves actually to become transmitters 
of the life of Christ? These are pressing questions. 
And our survey of the whole subject of service is 
incomplete until we have set ourselves to find their 
answer. 

In the first place, let it be clearly understood 
that the problem of service is at bottom a problem 
of the inner life. All service must be based on 
life and character. Activity that has no character 
behind it will be a mere beating of the air as regards 
the achievement of any spiritual results. ‘The 
power to witness for Christ depends on being like 
Him. Men will always learn of Christ from those 
whom they see living with Christ-like simplicity for 
their sake.’* ‘Until we are more like Him, we 
Christians, ordained and unordained alike, till with 
eyes purged from superstition and self-interest we 
can see Him as He is, we can never show Him to 
others; and surely this is the secret of the ill-success 
of the Churches.”? We are thus at once thrust 
back on the prior questions which we have already 
examined, the question of character and behind it 
the question of faith, and we see in what vital con- 
nection they stand with this subject of service. It 
is an old truth, but one which has to be learnt 
afresh every day, that if we want to serve Christ’s 
Kingdom, we must somehow contrive to keep near 
Christ’s Person. There is no other way. If our 
contact with men is to inspire them with the Spirit 
of Christ, then our touch with them on the one 

* From the Message of the Lambeth Conference, 1908. 

? J. H.F. Peile, Ecclesia Discens, p. 280. 

I1I2 


SERVICE 


side must be balanced by our touch with Him on 
the other. This is a principle which He Himself 
explicitly laid down. ‘‘He that believeth on Me” 
—and such “belief,” as we saw, means nothing less 
than the going forth of our personality on to His 
in trust and love'—‘“‘out from within him shall flow 
rivers of living water.’ This is the secret and 
the only secret. Fill a vessel full enough, and it is 
bound to overflow. 

Here is a mysticism stripped of mysticism’s con- 
stant danger—selfishness. The Christian ideal of 
mystic union with Christ is as the poles asunder 
from the Buddhist conception of Nirvana. And it 
is the idea of service which severs them. The Bud- 
dhist ideal is so to be immersed in God that the 
world shall drift by unheeded. The Christian ideal 
is so to be immersed in God that blessing shall flow 
out on to the world. The Buddhist seeks God 
that he may forget the world; the Christian, that 
he may save it. Both seek after true holiness, but 
with what different motives! ‘For their sakes I 
sanctify Myself.”* If that was one of the main- 
springs of the Master’s inner life, so must it be for 
the disciple also. It has once been seen perfectly, 
and on the lesser scale occasionally, what God can 
do for the world through a man who is holy, using 
that word in its greatest meaning. There is need 
to see that experiment repeated, far and wide. It is 
an experiment within the compass of all who have, 
in any degree, laid hold of that power which can 

* pee above, p. 7. ? John vii. 38. 

Plolink xvijsea0; 
I 113 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


produce goodness in the room of sin. There is no 
influence to compare with that of a personality given 
up to God and to goodness. We may cite, as one 
out of many possible examples, the case of the late 
Bishop Wilkinson, Primus of the Episcopal Church 
in Scotland. Without being a great thinker or a 
great orator, he wielded an astonishingly great 
influence for God on his generation. And what was 
its secret? Its secret lay in the fact that he was a 
“practical mystic.” ‘It would be impossible,” says 
his biographer, “fully to understand the life of 
Bishop Wilkinson without knowing how intensely, 
how incessantly, he lived in the consciousness of the 
unseen world. It pressed upon him with a more 
absorbing interest than the things of sense.” 2 

A further condition of successful service, as of 
successful prayer,” is an unhesitating faith in God. 
Faith, that is, in the sense of a profound conviction 
that God is the real Worker. There is a great 
difference between the conception of working for 
God and that of letting God work through us. He 
has indeed, as we have seen, invited human co- 
operation for the achievement of His purposes, but 
that gracious invitation must not be allowed to 
obscure the fact that His is the Hand that moves 
the world. ‘‘The help that is done upon earth 
He doeth it Himself.” * ‘Work,’ it has been truly 
said, “is the Dagon of to-day; instead of being a 
witness to our faith in God, in Whose Name we do 


*A. J. Mason, Memoir of G. H. Wilkinson, Bishop of St. 
Andrews, vol. i. p. 199. 

* See above, p. 06. 

PAS Alive 103 SCPE VE 


II4 


SERVICE 


it, it is too often a vast monument to our disbelief 
in His ability to do without us.””* 

Indeed, it is only the conviction of God’s love and 
power always working that can save His servants 
from a numbing sense of powerlessness and from 
the occasional temptation to blank despair. He who 
would serve the Kingdom, and win men into it, 
often finds himself up against a barrier that appears 
insurmountable. This one “‘has no need of Christ.” 
That one is wandering in a fog of doubt. Another, 
tied and bound by self-forged chains, seems to have 
lost the capacity for faith. Is it really impossible 
for these men to reach the living Christ? Is there 
no power that can strike the aleve from their 
limbs, that can lift the veil from their eyes? That 
power is notin me. I cannot do it. But God can. 
Nothing is too hard for Him. He is far more 
willing, and infinitely more able, to help than I 
am; and if only my faith will wait for Him, one 
day I shall behold the triumph of His love. It is 
this conviction, and this conviction alone, that 
makes the most difficult and seemingly most fruit- 
less service worth while. God is there, at work: 
His servant can wait and hope. ‘“Though he goeth 
on his way weeping, bearing forth the seed, he shall 
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his 
sheaves with him.’” 

Finally, if in any true sense we are to be servants 
of men, we must learn afresh what it means to be 


* L. H. M. Soulsby, Stray Thoughts in Sickness and in Health, 
p. 63. 
PES CKR VIO! 
II5 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


servants of Christ. This third condition of service, 
and the second also, are really implicit in the first 
but for the sake of clearness and emphasis they may 
with advantage be stated separately. 

Our service of men is so spasmodic and inefficient 
and uninspired, largely because we have drifted 
away from Christ’s original idea of discipleship. 
Our power to lift the world towards God will be 
conditioned by our recovery of that ideal. ‘What 
we want to-day is a re-discovery of what it really 
means to be a Christian. Hardly any of us are living 
the Christian life, and we do not realize that it is 
so.”’* A half-heated and unconsidered discipleship 
is like salt without its savor ;? little wonder that it is 
unable to season the world. We are indeed to-day 
faced by a grave lack of power. The Church is 
confronted by mighty tasks, and seems to lack the 
spiritual force needful for their accomplishment. 
The Missionary Societies are marking time when 
they ought to be going forward. The Social Prob- 
lem at home, with all the chaotic mass of moral 
and physical evil that hides under that name, 
threatens to get altogether beyond the efforts of 
organized Christianity. In both cases, we may be 
quite sure that no other solution will be found save 
in self-sacrificing personal service on the part of 
those who have learnt that true life is in Christ 
alone. A Missionary Society exists chiefly to 
organize, direct, and apply the personal service 
which individuals are willing to give., it iisues 
fond fallacy that subscriptions or secretaries or 

* Paper by T. Tatlow, in Thought and Discipleship, p. 56. 

*Cf. Luke xiv. 25-35. 

116 


it 


SERVICE 


solemn committee-meetings can save the world. 
Similarly with the Social Problem.t. Obviously 
there must be corporate Christian action on a large 
scale. The Church must strongly support the State 
in any legislative action which would tend to give 
effect to the teaching of Christ. ‘‘We must express 
in the law of our land the principle that property 
should count for less and human souls for more, that 
simplicity and righteousness exalt a nation, and that 
any class monopoly of opportunity and enjoyment 
is not compatible with that love to men which our 
Lord demands.’? But effective corporate action 
depends utterly on the initiative and resolution of 
individual Christians. It will only be set in motion 
as men re-discover and re-apply in their own lives 
the law of love and the law of service as defined by 
Christ Himself. 

The crux of the matter really lies in the cost of 
such discipleship. Nothing worth having can be 
had without cost. There are no exceptions to 
that law. “If any man is willing to come after 
Me, let him say no to self, and take up his cross 
daily, and follow Me. For whosoever would save 
his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life 
for My sake, the same shall save it.”* If we would 
go with Christ and have any share in His redemp- 
tive work for the sons of men, we must be prepared 
to pay the price. We shall never gain anything 
by cheapening the terms of the Gospel. Garibaldi 


* See further, Every-day Religion, ni ili. 

* Discipleship and the Social Problem, p. 10. This pamphlet 
embodied the results of one of the early Student Movement 
Conferences on the “Social Problem,” 

puke ix. 23, 24. 


117 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


would have got nothing had he not demanded all. 
“I do not,” cried he, “offer pay, provisions, or quar- 
ters; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles, 
and death.” 

The service of Christ is stern work, and one that 
demands ungrudging sacrifice. Not that such dis- 
cipleship will demand a life in any way unnatural. 
It will not suggest particular conditions, or any 
special profession, for its exercise. It can be lived 
anywhere, by any man, in any circumstances. Our 
Lord’s own life was absolutely natural. He “came 
eating and drinking,’ yet sacrifice marked it all 
through. And the discipleship which He demands 
will cost us, not the heroics of a crusade, but a new 
temper and a new ideal in the little things of life. 
“There is no part of our life which it will not affect, 
and no relation which will not take a new color 
under the new light. It will mean a slow and pain- 
ful surrender of self-will and a daily attempt to 
walk in humility before God and man. Expendi- 
ture, pleasure, the choice of our life’s work, and, 
above all, speech and thought as they touch those 
around us must all be modified. The missionary 
will be affected, as much as the teacher in a school 
at home, the merchant as much as the official, 
the journalist writing about foreign affairs as the 
preacher,’))* 

This is the soil in which shall flourish a service 
that tells. It is in this school that we shall begin 
to learn, and to share, something of Christ’s love 
for men. That is what we want. For it is its 


* Discipleship and the Social Problem, D. TA: 
118 





SERVICE 


lovelessness that vitiates so much of our service. 
We set to work so coldly, so professionally; our 
laggard feet are spurred by duty, and so slowly 
learn to run for love. No wonder we achieve so 
little. It must indeed be ‘back to Christ” if we 
are to learn the true philanthropy, the burning pas- 
sion for men that animated a heart like St. Paul’s. 
It must be ‘‘back to Christ” for us to catch the love 
which can shake off stiff reserve; the love that can 
look through sin and see men with the eyes of God; 
the love that can stoop into the lowest pit amid the 
mire and clay; the love that can suffer and wait and 
dare, even unto death. As with love, so with life. 
There must needs be sacrifice if we are to communi- 
cate life. “Except a grain of wheat falleth into the 
earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it 
die it beareth much fruit.”’+ The function of death 
is to release life. It is only as I die to sin and 
selfishness that through me the life of Christ can 
break forth and touch the lives I touch. 


“Measure thy life by loss instead of gain; 

Not by the wine drunk; but the wine poured forth; 
For Love’s strength standeth in Love’s sacrifice, 

And he who suffers most hath most to give.” 


Yet somehow sacrifice ceases to be sacrifice when 
your heart goes after Him. There is no drudgery, 
but only joy, in slaving for Him Whose service is 
perfect freedom. The cross is light when His hands 
lay it on your shoulder. ‘He that will take that 
crabbit tree and will carry it cannily, will yet find 
it to be such a burden as wings are to a bird and 
sails to a boat.”’ ” 


* John xii. 24. ? Samuel Rutherford. 
119 





CHAPTER VIII 
VISION 





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CHAPTER VIII 


VISION 


“T saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out 
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I 
heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle 
of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall 
be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their 
God.”’—Revelation xxi. 2, 3. 


“The follower of Jesus is a laborer, but he is a laborer to- 
gether with God. He is the man with a hoe, but he has his part 
in the harvest whose reapers are the angels.”—F.G. Prapopy. 

To see the significance of the part, we must view 
it in relation to the whole. To find a meaning 
for each step in a long-extended sequence of steps, 
we must look away to the end to which they lead. 
Observe the worker in the iron foundry, each day 
and all day laboring at bolt or plate or steel-rod. 
His work has no meaning at all save as it prepares 
for that day when, with all its thousand parts in 
place, the finished and perfected piece of mechanism 
shall leave the shops ready for instant use. 

To many a man dissatisfied with himself and dis- 
appointed at the seeming uselessness of his service, 
there comes the temptation to apathy, to pessimism, 
sometimes even to despair. What is the good of it 
all? What is the use of toiling up a path that seems 
to lead nowhere? There is one thing, and one thing 
only, that can dispel this spirit of despondency, and 

123 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


that is the Vision of the Goal. If a man can only 
lift up his head and see that Vision, the sight of it 
will bring new light into his eyes, new strength into 
his limbs. Any prayer that I can offer, any purity 
that I can win, any service that I can render, is infi- 
nitely worth while, and why? Simply because the 
best that I can be.or do has its own essential place 
in paving the way for that 


“One far-off Divine Event, 
To which the whole creation moves.” 


Such a conception, ennobling and inspiring as it 
is, is not mere poetic fancy. It is based on solid 
fact. This hope is not the fond creation of intense 
human longing; it is part and parcel of historic 
Christianity. The disciple of Christ not merely 
may believe, but ought to believe, that “God is 
working His purpose out as year succeeds to year. 
that every man born into the world has his place 
to fill in forwarding that purpose; that the goal of 
history is the final triumph of the Kingdom of God; 
that the Day is surely coming when the earth shall 
be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover 
the sea. 

That such a vision is justified, I hope shortly to - 
show. That we need it, and need it sorely, almost 
goes without saying. Here only do we discover a 
final meaning for all those data of the Christian life 
which we have already examined. Only here is that 
which can shed the light of eternity on the daily 
round, the common task. Many a life is marred 
and impoverished, solely from lack of a horizon. 
Christianity still suffers severely from the blight of 

124 


VISION 


parochialism. The advice to think imperially is not 
unneeded by some subjects of the King of kings. 
Here is one who is perhaps a long-established ad- 
herent of his Church, or, if a student, an interested 
member of his Christian Union. He is not unmind- 
ful of ordinary Christian obligations, but his vision 
is limited by the boundaries of his parish or the walls 
of his college. That his Christ is concerned with 
India or with China, with Japan or with Africa, 
with the affairs of the Western nations, or with the 
problems of the Near East—such a thought barely 
crosses his mind. Foreign missions is a term familiar 
enough, but the very reverse of anything alive and 
interesting; it may call for a shilling in the collec- 
tion, but it conveys no summons to himself, it finds 
no live contact with his own inner life and thought. 
That the picture is not overdrawn those familiar 
with the facts will admit. Happily such an attitude 
is becoming less common, for it is beginning to be 
recognized that it is almost ludicrously inconsistent 
with the most elementary professions of Christianity. 
The last century has seen a revolution in Christian 
thought on the subject of Foreign Missions. The 
Vision of the Goal is dawning afresh on the Chris- 
tian consciousness. Men are waking to the fact that 
we have a universal Christ, and that in Him alone 
lies the hope for the world. We are beginning to 
see that the order of the petitions in the Lord’s 
Prayer is not accidental, but that Christ did actually 
intend a man to pray for the coming of the Kingdom 
before he began to pray for himself. 

What, then, are the facts which justify this belief 
that one day the kingdoms of the world shall be- 


125 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


come the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ? 
For the moment, let us leave the New Testament on 
one side, and note a general consideration which is 
calculated to appeal to anyone, whether he has any 
religious belief or not. It is this. If scientists have 
established the idea of evolution, and if it is legiti- 
mate to regard its operation as universal, then the 
evolutionist may well believe that the world process 
is neither haphazard nor meaningless, but alive with 
significance and purpose. ‘‘We are all agreed, ex- 
cept the pessimist, that some uplifting force is 
working in the world. Whether we call it Divine 
or not, no others will dispute the action of such a 
force in geological and historical times.” The very 
idea of progress involves the idea of a goal. In 
history, as in nature, “‘progress is change determined 
towards an end.” And must there not be a mind 
behind controlling the process, shaping the develop- 
ment, in the direction of the far-off goal? Or, in 
Christian language, are we not justified in looking 
for the Purpose of God in the march of history? 

And, in point of fact, that is what we find. 
History cannot, of course, be viewed as a perfect 
revelation of the purpose of God, for the obvious 
reason that man has been allowed freely to inter-_ 
vene. And where man apart from God has had his 
own way the result has usually been retrogression. 
“History is more than a logical or necessitated 
movement. It is a sphere where great issues are 
freely determined by the clash and collision of hu- 
man wills. We cannot exalt God’s control of the 
process at the expense of human initiative, or do 

* Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. i. p. 232. 
126 


VISION 


violence to the moral condemnation which we in- 
stinctively pass upon much that has happened in 
earlier times, or that is happening now.’? But 
having made this qualification, it may be said, and 
truly, that history, viewed as a whole, does reveal 
the working out of a great Purpose through the 
ages, and does record the definite though gradual 
progress of the Kingdom of God. To work out this 
point in detail cannot be attempted within the limits 
of this present chapter. It will only yield its full 
significance to a fairly close study of history. Suffice 
it to say—and the claim is not unreasonable—that 
Christianity has proved the great driving force be- 
hind human progress, from the time when the 
Gospel first went forth to meet, and within three 
centuries to win, the Roman world up to the present 
day, when all that is best in modern civilization is 
admittedly based on the principles of Jesus Christ. 

But the final justification for the Christian’s hope 
and aim is to be found in the idea of the Kingdom 
of God as originated and defined by Christ Himself. 
Space forbids examination of particular passages; 
only a rapid survey of the subject can be attempted. 
The Kingdom of God is too comprehensive an idea 
to be contained within any one definition. It may be 
said, roughly, that it stands for a relationship. It de- 
notes God’s rule recognized, welcomed, and obeyed 
by man and by men. This sovereignty necessarily 
has two aspects, individual and social. The second 
is a logical outcome of the first. A collection of 
individuals each owning Christ as King, constitutes 
a society, united by a common devotion and obeying 

* V.F.Storr, Development and Divine Purpose, p. 244. 

127 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


common laws. It follows, therefore, that all the 
relationships of life must come within the scope of 
the Kingdom of God. There cannot be one rule 
for the unit and another for the sum of units. 
Abundant and illuminating was Christ’s teaching 
about the Kingdom. He said it was to be spiritual 
in genesis, character, and development. Like the 
mustard seed, its beginnings are hardly noticeable. 
Like the leaven, it works from within outwards. A 
transformed society will only be attained through 
transformed personalities. As Herbert Spencer put 
it, “you cannot get golden conduct out of leaden 
instincts.” Further, Christ spoke of the Kingdom 
as the summum bonum, the highest ideal, the most 
blessed consummation, for man and for men. Like 
a hidden treasure or a priceless pearl, any sacrifice 
is worth while to reach it. Such is its value and 
importance that it must be regarded as paramount 
even to the most sacred family claims. After this 
we are hardly surprised at being told that its destiny 


is universal. In view of its own spiritual character, — 


and the unique personality of its King, it could not 
conceivably be anything else. And, further, the 
Kingdom’s success is not postponed to some dim and 
distant future; its development is to proceed here 
and now, on this very earth. In the Lord’s Prayer 
we are taught to ask “Thy Kingdom come . . . on 
earth as in Heaven” (as every student of the Greek 
Testament is aware, the words “on earth as in 
Heaven” stand in close connection with all three 
preceding petitions, and not with the third only). 
This being the case, the Church can never disclaim 
responsibility for the community or the nation on 
128 





Sp ee eee 


ee ee a ea a ee. a 


ee eee he ae 


VISION 


the plea that she is concerned only with the salvation 
of the individual. 

At the same time, Christ certainly implied, par- 
ticularly in His eschatological discourse, that the 
Kingdom’s final triumph belonged to the future. 
In this connection we are confronted with an impor- 
tant but difficult question. In what relationship does 
Christ’s Second Advent stand to the development 
and success of the Kingdom of God? Let us first 
try to clear the ground by emphasizing two obvious 
principles which must govern any interpretation of 
Christ's Parousia discourse.t We must remember 
on the one hand that the discourse is clothed in the 
vivid imagery of Jewish Apocalypse, which should 
warn us against searching its details for minute and 
particular predictions. And on the other hand any 
interpretation must harmonize with the whole body 
of Christ’s teaching about the Kingdom. It is at 
least safe to say that the parousia, or Second Com- 
ing of Christ, stands for a crisis in history of some 
sort. What will be the nature of this crisis? On 
one view it will be a clean sweep of the old order 
and a sudden and violent introduction of the new. 
The blackboard will be sponged clean that God may 
write on it afresh. Evil in the very moment of its 
triumph will be thrown down and the rule of right- 
eousness set up. It is difficult, however, to reconcile 
this view with what we know of God, and what He 

* Matt. xxiv., Mark xiii, Luke xxi. 5-36. The eschatological 
element in the Gospels is still the subject of theological contro- 
versy. A considerable period of further study and investigation 
will probably have to elapse before any general agreement is 


reached on the question which is here raised and—very tentatively 
—answered. 


K 129 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


has taught us of His Kingdom. It is as if His first 
plan for the world had failed, and He was com- 
pelled to try another. Is it a priori likely that God 
would as it were arbitrarily intervene, and by the 
exercise of His Sovereign power summarily displace 
the Evil by the Good? May not that crisis be, not 
so much a despairing intervention, as a natural 
climax, when the age-long development of the King- 
dom shall have reached its culminating point, when 
the world shall be ready for the universal reign of 
the King Himself? Such a climax would be the 
crown of a long preceding process, in which the 
nations of the world gradually find their place in 
the federation of the Kingdom of God. And, the 
tares being separated from the wheat, it would also 
prove the birth of an age promising yet greater 
glories for the Kingdom of God.1 

If such an interpretation of Christ’s idea of the 
Kingdom be correct, its results must be to place the 
whole missionary enterprise on broad and perma- 
nent foundations, to inspire it with a higher ideal, 
a larger hope, a more far-reaching purpose. To 
borrow an apt metaphor from a recent writer, the 
aim of Christian missions is no longer to go out ina 
lifeboat and pick up a few struggling survivors from 
a hopeless wreck; it is rather to get the ship, which 
is only aground, safe to port with all on board. The 
missionary objective is no longer the individual 
alone, it includes the nation also. The larger aim 
is thrust upon us, whether we will or no. By a 
process that is inevitable, ‘Christian Missions pass 

* Yet one cannot safely dogmatize as to the time of that Com- 
ing; see Luke xii. 4o. 

130 


VISION 


speedily into the sociological stage. . . . The aim 
to reach the individual soul expands into an en- 
deavor to create a society imbued with the Spirit 
of Christ.’’? Not that the individual, on this view, 
becomes of less importance; on the contrary, his 
value increases just because he is viewed in his rela- 
tionship to the whole body of which he is a member. 
“In so far as corporate and individual redemption 
can be separated, the one was Christ’s purpose as 
much as the other; neither is ‘primary’ and neither 
is ‘secondary. Both are fundamental.” ? ‘The 
salvation of the individual culminates in the salva- 
tion of the race, the salvation of the race involves 
the salvation of the individual.” * 

This summons to evangelize and Christianize the 
nations, which, as we have tried to show, is implicit 
in the idea of the Kingdom of God, gains added 
point and emphasis from the rise and growth, dur- 
ing the present century, of the spirit of nationalism. 
As that great missionary thinker, Dr. Mott, pointed 
out some time ago, “A wave of nationalism is 
sweeping over the non-Christian world. While we 
recognize the growth of this spirit in Latin Amer- 
ica, in parts of Africa, both north and south, and in 
eastern and southeastern Europe, the most rapid 
advance into national self-consciousness is observa- 
ble among the Asiatic races. God chose the regions 
fringing the Mediterranean, with their eighty mil- 
lions of people, as the theater of the activities of the 
first great era; the lands bordering on the Upper 

* Cairns, Christianity in the Modern World, p. 260. 
? Houlder, Christian Discipleship and Social Life, p. 30. 
* Bernard Lucas, The Empire of Christ, p. 104. 

I3I 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


Atlantic, with their four hundred millions, for the 
second great era; and the countries upon the Pacific 
and its neighboring seas, with eight hundred mil- 
lions, for the third great era. All across that vast 
Asiatic Continent is being felt the thrill of a new 
life. From the Inland Sea of Europe to the Inland 
Sea of Japan there is an impressive manifestation of 
new national aspirations. This spirit of nationalism 
is not to be crushed and withstood. It is the func- 
tion of the Christian movement to help inform it, to 
help purify it, to help guide it, to help energize it.” + 

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that in the 
missionary enterprise is to be found the answer, and 
the only answer, to the pressing racial, national, and 
international problems of our day. Within the 
Western nations industrial problems have reached 
an acute stage. ‘The present solution of their inter- 
national problems is the feudal one of each being 
armed to the teeth. In the apt description of 
Professor Cairns, “the code of morals, and even of 
manners, as between nations, is such as no modern 
civilized society would tolerate as between its citi- 
zens. If we are to take the popular Press of 
Europe or America as fair indicators of interna- 
tional feeling, the Great Powers of Christendom — 
treat one another like ruffians in an East End slum 
or a mining-camp, rather than like Christians or 
even gentlemen.” ? It is quite evident that the 
causes of this international feudalism are moral. 
At bottom the final cause of international suspicion 

* Mott, Modern World Movements: God's Challenge to the 
Church, pp. 3, 10. 

* Cairns, op. cit., p. 300. See the whole chapter (vi.). 

132 


VISION 


is national selfishness. But where is the spell to be 
found which will remove man’s inborn selfishness? 
Where, indeed, save in the Spirit of Christ? We 
may dream of a devotion to the “common good,” 
which alone will solve the Social Problem, and 
which, on a wider scale, will place international 
relations on the broad base of justice and peace and 
goodwill. But such a temper will only come with 
the coming of the Kingdom of God. No power on 
earth can make a man care a brass farthing for the 
“common good” until Christ touches his life and 
he finds himself, in a way he can hardly explain, 
compelled to love his neighbor.* 

Further, the relations of the higher and lower 
races have reached a stage fraught with the possi- 
bility of momentous consequences. Isolation is 
a thing of the past. “By means of the various 
applications of steam and electricity, the world has 
been turned into a single neighborhood. We have 
seen the death of distance. The nations and peoples 
are being drawn into closer and closer touch with 
each other through trade and commerce, through 
the growing volume of travel, through intermar- 
riage, through the influence of international societies 
of various kinds, through the activity of the Press, 
and through the development of international law.’” 
‘It is hardly too much to say,” observes Mr. Bryce 
‘+ This paragraph was written in 1910. In revising (in 1923) 
I purposely allow it to stand; because, despite the terrible lessons 
of the Great War, and despite the League of Nations, force is 
still the main arbiter in international disputes. For the whole 
subject of Christianity and international affairs reference may be 


permitted to chapter ii. of the writer’s Every-day Religion. 
* Mott, of. cit., p. 1. 


133 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


in his Romanes Lecture, “that for economic pur- 
poses mankind is fast becoming one people, in which 
the hitherto backward nations are taking a place 
analogous to that which the unskilled workers have 
held in each one of the civilized nations. Such an 
event opens a new stage in world history, a stage 
whose significance has, perhaps, been as yet scarcely 
realized either by the thinker or the man of ac- 
tion.”* All this is plain matter of fact. And what 
is to be its result? 

It is a mere assumption to suppose that the 
higher races must of necessity elevate the lower 
in some inevitable and evolutionary process of 
civilization. Ordinary human possibilities point 
to quite as likely an alternative in a world-wide 
demoralization, or the final clash of inter-racial 
hatred in some fateful Armageddon. The issue 
has to be squarely faced. If the higher races are 
to govern in the interests of the governed, if the 
lower races are to be lifted up and fitted to take 
their place among the nations of the world, if this 
shrinkage of the world is to make for racial peace 
and unity, some tremendous moral force must be 
forthcoming for the task. And where shall this be 
found save in Christianity? What ultimate hope 
is there for the common peace and good of the 
world save in a great federation of the nations 
within the Kingdom of God? 

There is one other aspect of the missionary enter- 
prise which gains a new significance from the fresh 
endeavor of our generation to understand the spirit 
and purposes of Christ. That is the relation 

* Quoted by Cairns, of. cit., p. 253. 

134 


VISION 


of the Gospel Message to the great non-Christian 
religions of the world. The modern believer in 
Foreign Missions is as convinced as his forefathers 
that those religions are destined one day to bow 
before the Message of the Cross. But he no longer 
feels obliged to believe that Buddhism and Hindu- 
ism and Mohammendanism are from beginning to 
end the work of the devil. On the contrary, he is 
compelled, if he is honest, to see the good that is 
in them, and at the same time to ascribe that good 
to the Author and Giver of all that is good. And, 
remembering that Christ came not to destroy but 
to fulfill, he will embrace a missionary policy that 
looks for and tends the seed that God has already 
sown; ‘for,’ as Henry Drummond ttruly said, 
“there is no field in the world where the Great 
Husbandman has not sown something.’ Moreover, 
we may be sure that Christianity, which was born in 
the East and grew up in the West, will never realize 
all the wealth of its heritage until, as St. John fore- 
saw, ‘they shall bring the glory and honor of the 
nations into it.” * It may well be that the Hindu 
or the Hausa will find fresh beauties in the face of 
Christ which Western eyes have utterly failed to see. 
We, with all our centuries of Christian thought, 
have as yet understood but a fragment of His 
colossal mind. If Christ is universal, it will take a 
universe to interpret Him. 

The lesson of the whole situation would seem 
fairly plain. On the one side the nations, jostling 
each other in a new contact, seething with life, 
bursting with possibilities both for good and evil; 

REVS Xx1, 26, 
135 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


on the other side, the Kingdom of God with its 
infinite power to transform, to unify, to uplift. 
These are facts which offer the Church of Christ 
a unique opportunity, and at the same time lay 
on her a tremendous responsibility. She has been 
intrusted with the secret of the Kingdom; on her 
account of her stewardship it depends whether the 
Kingdom shall remain latent or shall become real- 
ized before the eyes of men. ‘The world is chal- 
lenging the Church; how is the Church going to 
answer the challenge? 

The challenge is not, thank God, passing un- 
heeded, though as yet the response has come from 
the few and not from the many. But there is a 
cloud in the sky with the promise of abundance of 
rain. The old missionary ignorance is being grad- 
ually displaced by new knowledge, the old apathy 
by new enthusiasm, the old inertia by new devotion. 
There is still needed a far greater measure of spir- 
itual fitness in order to grapple with the task suc- 
cessfully. But the beginnings are here. The twen- 
tieth century finds the Church and the Churches 
rousing themselves to the work after a fashion that 
is almost reminiscent of the first. One great land- 
mark in the new movement was the World Mission- — 
ary Conference held at Edinburgh in June, 1920, 
an event which, now that it can be seen in true per- 
spective, may rightly be called epoch-making. One 
of the best known of the attendant bishops stated 
that, in his deliberate opinion, the Conference was 
the most significant event of Christian history since 
the great Council of Nica in 325 A.p.; and he may 
well have been right. As The Times said in one 

136 


VISION 


of its leading articles, commenting on the unique 
phenomenon presented by the Conference, ‘Only 
a willingness to reconsider the postulate that the 
age of miracles is past will put us somewhere on 
the way to an explanation.” It is not necessary 
after the lapse of years, to re-tell in detail the story 
of this Conference, though no keen student of mis- 
sionary history could afford to neglect its official re- 
ports, or W. H. T. Gairdner’s contemporary ac- 
count of it in book form, Edinburgh, 1910: An 
Account and Interpretation of the World Confer- 
ence. The main point is that the Conference proved 
a wholly new object lesson in the value of the pos- 
sibilities of Christian Unity. I spoke above of the 
spiritual fitness needed by the Church to fulfill her 
task. Perhaps the most serious bar to attaining that 
fitness lies in the hard and sharp divisions which 
at present cut and sever and mutilate the Church 
of Christ. The result, as the Church faces the 
world, is weakness and wasteful confusion. How 
are we to conquer, so long as we are divided? 
There is no doubt that any comprehensive plan to 
enable the various Christian Communions to join 
hands in their work would be equivalent to doub- 
ling the present missionary forces. The sinful- 
ness as well as the waste of this lack of unity has 
been of late oppressing with fresh force many a 
conscience in the different Churches. Corporate 
penitence for our divisions, corporate hope and 
prayer for a new unity, did unquestionably reach 
a new stage at Edinburgh. There was seen the 
unwonted, almost the unparalleled, spectacle of 
all the chief Churches of the Protestant Com- 


137 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


munion meeting together, without surrender of 
principle, yet each contributing the best of their 
particular heritage, to plan and to pray for the 
salvation of the world. ‘The truly wonderful 
thing of the Conference,” wrote Professor Cairns, 
“was the apparition of a new type of fellowship 
between the disciples of Christ, the transcending of 
differences that hitherto proved more intractable 
than those of social circumstance and education 
and race.” If these experiments in unity can be 
repeated, if this spirit of unity can grow and con- 
quer the old division and narrowness and exclusive- 
ness, then indeed there is hope for the coming of 
the Kingdom of God. 

Since Edinburgh, 1910, much has happened. 
After the Great War many who before were inclined 
to ignore religion have been forced to recognize 
that Christianity may well be the only hope for a 
world gone mad, and that in Europe, in Asia, in 
Africa the final issue may be between Christ and 
chaos. As to reunion, the great Lambeth Con- 
ference of all the Bishops in 1920, with the impor- 
tant negotiations since, have brought the matter at 
last into the foreground of the Church’s thought 
and work; and, however complex the questions and 
formidable the task, there are signs of the growth 
of a conscience and a determination in the Church 
which will never let go of this problem until it is 
solved. There are similar signs of awakening in the 
missionary conscience of the Church. We are still 
far enough from the ideal, when every ordinary 
Church member will be an enthusiast for spreading 
God’s Kingdom. But we are moving towards it. 

138 


VISION 


There is a growing recognition in religious circles 
that the Church is not an end in itself, but only an 
instrument, an agent, to herald and to build the 
City of God. And men are beginning to see the 
anomaly, the grotesque anomaly, of a “Christian” 
who “‘doesn’t believe in Foreign Missions.” I may 
be permitted to re-tell a story here which I have 
printed elsewhere.t. The collector at a missionary 
meeting, hearing a whispered protest from one to 
whom he was handing the bag, “I never give to 
missions,” replied in a flash, ‘“Then take something 
out of the bag, sir; the money is for the heathen.” 

There is one other thing that must be said in 
conclusion. We have looked at the vision of The 
Goal. We have seen something of what it would 
mean for the Kingdom to triumph throughout the 
world. We have, very cursorily, taken stock of the 
Church’s fitness for the task confronting her. But, 
when all is said and done, the question will come 
creeping in: Are we attemping the impossible? 
Can the thing really be done? Are not we men 
setting ourselves a task which is really beyond the 
power of man to achieve? These questions are 
formidable, sometimes paralyzing. The only con- 
ceivable answer is suggested by the form of our 
question. Our task is hopelessly and ludicrously 
beyond the power of man to achieve. But it 1s not 
beyond the power of God. There, in a sentence, 
is contained the one justification for the Church’s 
prayer and toil, there lies the one secret of our hope 
that the Kingdom is coming. Without the presence 


1 Parochial Church Councils and Overseas Missions, p. 4. 
139 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


of the power of God, “the disparity between the 
undertaking and the means of achievement would 
make the problem incomparably foolish. But the 
suficiency of God makes the difference between 
folly and sublimity.”” The task will be done be- 
cause God will do it. 

How easy it is to say it, how hard really to believe 
it. Yet this beliefis a necessary condition for God 
to act. The delay in the Kingdom’s coming is not 
from Him. “A Father-God must be always ready 
to usher in the ‘Kingdom,’ always willing to put 
forth His infinite resources for the rescue of His 
children from evil powers too strong for them. 
If He does it not it must be that He is hindered; 
and nothing can hinder a Father-God from being 
fully Himself to His children, but their distrust and 
the self-willed independence which distrust engen- 
ders. . . . ‘The mills of God’ have ground slowly 
only because He chooses to wait for man. 
Let there only be born an implicit trust and its 
twin-brother, the surrender of self-will, and at once 
that limited slow-working Providence which had 
been so much the rule as to seem a fixed order of 
nature would prove its unnaturalness by giving 
place to a new system of nature, an unrestrained 
exercise of God’s infinite resources on the side of al] 
that is good in man and good for man. So, and 
only so, would the Kingdom of God arrive; its 
time was whenever men learned faith” “If around 
us to-day in the unseen lie all the illimitable po- 
tencies of the Divine spirit which Jay around the 

* Professor A. G. Hogg, in the World Missionary Conference 
Monthly News Sheet, January, 1910. 

140 


VISION 


first ages, awaiting only the rise of a generation 
stronger in faith and love than our own, then clearly 
the one true attitude for the Church is to confess 
its historic sin, and gird itself to the most resolute 
and strenuous endeavor and prayer that the be- 
numbing mist of our common unbelief may be dis- 
pelled, that the redeeming will of God in Christ 
may have free course in blessing the entire life of 
mane 

It is no good to minimize the cost of seeing our 
vision actualized. A new order of life, involving 
a new scale of service and sacrifice, and above all a 
new quality of faith; a new and corporate vision of 
God’s “secure availableness’” for man and for men; 
a recovery of the New Testament sense of God and 
along with it that dynamic which characterized the 
Apostolic life and labor; that is the price to pay if 
we want the Kingdom to come. The Church has 
to pay it; but “the Church” simply means you and 
me and all who bear the name of Christian. God 
show us the vision of a redeemed world, and God 
help us so to live and pray that the vision may 
come true. 


1D. S. Cairns, Report of Commission IV., World Missionary 
Conference. 


141 





GIA ERG 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 





CHAPTER IX 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


“Man is not God, but hath God’s end to serve, 
A master to obey, a course to take, 
Somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become— 
Grant this, then man must pass from old to new, 
From vain to real, from mistake to fact, 
From what once seemed good to what now proves best. 
How could man have progression otherwise ?” 
RoBERT BROWNING. 


THERE are many Christians (and this book is 
written largely for such) who, from whatever 
cause, do not read a great deal, and who find it 
dificult to think hard and continuously on complex 
subjects. Such people are sometimes bothered, in 
their religion, by three questions which they find, 
as it were, floating about in many minds, perhaps 
in their own, and for which they never succeed in 
finding a wholly satisfactory answer. One of these 
questions is about science and religion. Do scien- 
tists—the men who know all about Nature and her 
secrets—find it specially hard to “believe”? Does 
science really contradict what religion says? A 
second question is about the Bible. Has all the 
new learning and the new criticism discredited the 
Bible? Can we still believe the Bible to be “true”? 
The third question is about psychology. Has 
modern psychology explained away a good deal of 

L 145 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


what was thought to be real religious experience? 
An endeavor will be made in this chapter to answer 
those three questions. In making this attempt I 
shall try to face facts, and to be constructive. Noth- 
ing worth having is ever lost by facing facts. More- 
over, we of the Christian faith always stand to gain 
and not to lose by the continuous development of 
human thought. ~ All truth has its fount in Him 
Whom we serve; whether consciously or uncon- 
sciously it is in the study of His works and His 
ways that scientist, historian, and philosopher spend 
their life and labor. Any attitude of suspicion on 
our part is therefore not merely unnecessary, it is 
untrue to our highest convictions. Nothing of 
their work will remain save what is true; and all 
that is true is for us and not against us. 

It may not be amiss to say, at the outset, that 
there is no idea in this chapter of trying to make 
any original contribution to the discussion of those 
subjects which will be here considered. Any value 
the chapter may possess will be, not for the scholar 
or the thinker, but for the “plain man,” who 
wants a brief and untechnical account of what some 
of the scholars and thinkers are doing. 

I. There is little doubt that the nineteenth 
century will go down to posterity as marking the 
beginning of a new era of human knowledge. And 
perhaps the greatest progress of all has been made 
in the realm of physical science. In the ancient 
study of Nature, ingenious and fantastic theories 
held the field, while mere facts were little accounted 
of. This last century witnessed a complete reversal 
of this arbitrary method. Men cleared their minds 

146 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


of prepossessions and approached the study of 
Nature with the single aim of finding out the facts. 
In every possible field of knowledge thousands of 
investigators have been patiently and tirelessly at 
work, with telescope and microscope, with scalpel 
and test-tube, observing, recording, classifying every 
fact that they could find, in the heavens, on the 
earth, and under the earth. And the result has 
been to revolutionize our conception of Nature. 
Nature has been forced, in this direction and in 
that, to yield up her secrets, and we now know 
things and can do things which to our forefathers 
would have seemed sheer miracle. The practical 
results of this new knowledge have been far-reach- 
ing; it has been justly remarked that ‘our whole 
modern world of industry and commerce rests upon 
the scientific view of nature.” 

But undoubtedly the most important result for 
thought from all this investigation of the physical 
world around us has been the emergence of the 
twin conceptions of Natural Law and Evolution. 
The conclusion has been forced upon us that the 
world in which we live is an ordered world, and 
that life as we know it is the result of an age-long 
unfolding of successive stages. There is nothing 
wayward or haphazard in the vast and intricate 
world process. ‘‘Nowhere is there a hint within 
the farthest limits of telescope vision of any region 
‘where sentinels of order do not stand,’ and the 
spectrum reveals the same chemistry at work in 
the uttermost stars as on the earth on which we 
live.”* Effect follows cause in assured and regular 


* Griffith-Jones, The Ascent through Christ, p. 6. 
147 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


sequence. ‘There is an unvarying and seemingly 
mechanical regularity about Nature’s happenings. 
The sun rose to-day, and we have every reason for 
believing it will rise to-morrow. We are sure that 
the tree now robed in its autumn gold will be draped 
with fresh green next spring, and every spring until 
it dies. As often as I let go of the pen which I hold, 
I believe it will fall on the table. ‘These things 
happen with such unfailing sameness that we can 
only regard them as instances of universal, unalter- 
ing law. 

And what has been the result for religious thought 
of this idea of Law? The effect was at firstya 
somewhat violent, and, as it has since proved, quite 
unnecessary, hostility between Science and Faith. 
On the one side the theologians roundly asserted 
that the new science was the high-road to atheism. 
On the other side, some of the new thinkers gave 
color to this fear by their confident assurance 
that in physical science they had discovered the 
key of all knowledge. ‘Twenty or thirty years ago 
the Materialists, as these thinkers were called, had 
a large and influential following. Dominated by 
the amazing triumphs of physical science, they held 
that the material world, as we see it now and as 
we can trace its history, is its own explanation. — 
They pointed to the continuous chain of causation 
which we call evolution, beginning with dead 
matter and working upwards through organic life 
to conscious mind, and hailed this matter with its 
latent energy as the solution of the mysteries of 
the universe. But they made one tremendous 
mistake. ‘They failed to see that when you have 

148 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


traced a process you have not necessarily explained 
its cause. It is all very well to say that matter 
contains within itself the potency of life, but how 
did it get that potency? We may conjure with 
the words, matter and motion and force and energy, 
but we are still left with ultimate questions of 
cause and origin unanswered. Huxley, for instance, 
said that the universe had resulted from the inter- 
action of the powers possessed by the original 
molecules. But, as Professor Storr pertinently 
asked, “‘Is this a satisfactory explanation? A force 
acting on a molecule would certainly move it, but 
the point is, why the molecule moves in a par- 
ticular direction,’* and, we may add, what is 
behind the ‘‘force” that moves it? Its failure to 
answer these ultimate questions has been so marked 
that Materialism as a philosophical theory is in our 
day largely, and as some would say finally, dis- 
Peedited . ))lt)is* indeed a> remarkable fact’ that 
some of the most eminent scientists who have at 
one period of their career adopted some form of 
materialism have been forced from it by deeper 
reflection. ‘This is true of a psychologist so eminent 
as Wundt, and a scientist so distinguished as Vir- 
chow.’”? In fact the whole trend of modern 
science is in the other direction; the sharp line of 
division between matter and spirit is wearing thin, 
and some investigators would be hard put to it to 
say where one ends and the other begins. 

Materialism, then, has failed: and modern phi- 
losophy, apart altogether from religious belief, is 

* V.F. Storr, Development and Divine Purpose, p. 100. 
> Peake, Christianity: Its Nature and Its Truth, p. 45. 
149 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


tending towards a spiritual interpretation of the 
universe as the only one that can satisfy the de- 
mands of reason. It is only rational to suppose 
that behind the force which we see everywhere at 
work, behind the ordered sequences of natural law, 
behind the age-long development towards some 
far-off goal,’ there must be some kind of originating 
and controlling Mind. Of all human experience it 
may truly be said that matter is meaningless apart 
from spirit. Its final reality depends, not on its 
moving molecules, but on its relation to personality 
and thinking mind. The most real thing about a 
sunset 1s not the ethereal vibrations which cause it, 
but the reverent wonder with which we watch it. 
The most real thing about a sonata of Beethoven 
is not its sound-waves and their acoustic laws, but 
the mind that concieved it and the thrill of inward 
delight with which we hear it. But if this kind 
of human experience is valid, then it constitutes 
part of the “stupendous evidence that the material 
universe is a manifestation of spirit”;? and in our 
search for origins we are forced to the conclusion 
that “‘spirit is the final cause of matter.’ 

We must not, however, suppose that the spiritual 
interpretation of the universe is opposed to the 
scientific. It rather includes the other, as the 
greater includes the less. The scientist examines 

* It is worth pointing out that we do not beg the question 
when speaking of goal in connection with development. Most 
thinkers are agreed in interpreting development teleologically. 
Indeed progress has no meaning if we strip it of the idea of a goal. 

* Hlingworth, Divine Immanence, Pp. 35. See chapters i-iii, for 


an admirable discussion of the whole subject. 
* Ibid., p. 8. 


150 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


and classifies his phenomena, and pronounces with 
authority on the apparently infallible laws which 
govern their operation. His conclusions, no doubt, 
are perfectly correct within his own sphere. It is 
when he tries to stretch them so as to account for 
the originating cause and the final meaning of what 
he is examining that their inadequacy becomes 
apparent. An admirable illustration of this point 
has been given by a recent writer. ‘We introduce 
a completely deaf man into a party of people who 
are watching a pianist play on a grand piano of 
which the lid is lifted. The deaf man watches 
the changing expression of musician and audience, 
learns that there is a sympathetic experience, and 
understands the applause; but for explanation has 
only the moving fingers, the little leaping notes 
and vibrating wires and wood. By dint of observa- 
tion he forms a complete theory, founded on sight 
and touch, knows what will affect pathetically, 
cheerfully, enthusiastically. His theory is quite 
complete; he only omits one thing, the end and 
origin of the whole, that for which the piano was 
made and that which the jumping notes produce— 
namely, the music. His explanation is quite com- 
plete and quite correct—only it is quite meaning- 
less. It opposes the true theory by its negations 
and omissions, while the real explanation of the 
scene does not oppose but includes all that the 
deaf man has discovered.””* 

At this point Christianity—or, to speak more 
accurately, Theism—carries the spiritual interpre- 
tation a step further. There is general agreement 

* Margaret Benson, The Venture of Rational Faith, p. 46. 

TL 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


that Mind is the cause of matter. But the Theist 
goes on to afirm that the material universe, in its 
whole aspect and in its detailed working, is the 
expression of the controlling Mind and the per- 
vading Spirit of a Personal God. This conception 
of Divine Immanence, to give it its common name, 
which is present in the Bible, but for many centuries 
had remained in the background of Christian 
thought, has been recovered largely owing to the 
movement of Physical Science, already mentioned. 
Thoughtful men had become increasingly dis- 
satisfied with the common eighteenth-century con- 
ception of a Creator Who set the world going once 
for all and then, as it were, left it to work itself. 
The Deists, as the upholders of this theory were 
called, looked for Divine activity, not in natural 
law, but only in those apparent violations of law 
which they called miracle. This had the practical 
effect of banishing God from the world that He 
had made. And it has been one of the works of 
Science to destroy this idea of a God Who acts on 
the world only from the outside; for the new 
emphasis on His Immanence as Indwelling Spirit 
simply means that ‘“‘the common works of Nature 
are as truly Divine acts as anything we can imagine 
done by miracle.”* Moreover, this idea of Divine 
Immanence is, from the religious standpoint, a 
necessary correlative of the theory of evolution. 
If evolution points to a God at all, it points not 
to a mere spasmodic Divine intervention at the 
“gaps,” but to a God Who is at work through all 
the intricate stages of the age-long process. If 
* Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. ii. p. 277. 
152 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


creation was not a sudden act, but a process spread 
over millions of years, there appears not less, but 
more need for a Mind to plan and a Hand to shape. 
If man developed from a jelly-fish, and the world 
developed from a nebula, the demand for a Creator 
is not thereby diminished but intensified. “A 
stone Galatea who could develop into a living Gala- 
tea does not need a lesser but a greater sculptor.’ 
_ The old sharp, and often misleading, distinction 
between the natural and the supernatural has thus 
lost much of its validity. If God's spirit is at work, 
fixing the bounds of the farthest star, and giving 
life to the tiniest flower, the ‘‘natural’ and the 
“supernatural” are one. ‘Through Him all things 
were made, and apart from Him, nothing that ex- 
ists came into being.’’? ‘In Him we live and move 
and have our being.’””® 

At the same time it must always be borne in 
mind that, great and vital as the conception 1s, 
the ideal of Immanence does not express the whole 
truth of God’s Nature and relation to the world. 
It must be balanced by the equally true and vital 
idea of God’s Transcendence. That is to say, God 
is above and apart from as well as in the world. 
His Spirit may be said to be in the world in some- 
what the same sense as the spirit of an artist may 
be regarded as being in the picture he has painted, 
or the sculpture he has made. But God is no more 
to be identified with the world than the artist with 
his picture. Such identification is the fundamental 
error of Pantheism. I shall have some more to say 
about the limitations of the idea of Immanence 

1 Benson, op. cit., p. 40. ao holnei 3: ® Acts xvii. 28. 

153 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


further on, and in a somewhat different connection. 

We may now pass on to deal more explicitly 
with the subject of miracles. Half a century ago 
the miracles recorded in the Gospels were regarded 
as the chief evidence of the Christian faith. Theo- 
logical thought has since swung to the other ex- 
treme, and so far from being looked to as the main 
bulwark of the faith, miracles have come themselves 
to be regarded as in need of explanation and de- 
fense. ‘The reason of this change of attitude is not 
far to seek. It is almost entirely due to the rise of 
Physical Science to which reference has already been 
made. As we saw, one of the great contributions to 
knowledge made by Physical Science has been the 
idea of the uniformity of natural law. And it is in 
that idea that the real crux of the difficulty about 
miracles lies. If the reign of Law in Nature is 
absolute, what room can there be for the seemingly 
arbitrary variations caused by ‘‘miracle’’? 

First, let us clear the ground by noting what 
Natural Law is and what it is not. The term Law 
is in some ways misleading. We observe that, so 
far as our experience goes, phenomenon B has 
always followed phenomenon A, and we build upon 
that experience the “law” that B always does and 
always will follow A. But in this “law” there is 
as much of faith as of knowledge. We cannot know 
a fact before it has come to pass. However reason- 
able our belief may be that the sun will rise to- 
morrow, it is still only a belief.1 The idea that 
events must happen as they always have happened 
—the idea which constitutes the difficulty of miracle 

* Compare Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. i. p. 47. The 

154 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


—is then only based upon an assumption, an assump- 
tion which is valid enough so far as it goes, but 
which cannot logically be erected into an infallible 
law. 

There is a second important qualification neces- 
sary in using the category of Natural Law. We 
have seen already, in another connection, good 
reason to believe that the material world is caused 
by Spirit, that its development has been, and is 
being, controlled by the Immanent Spirit of God. 
Stated otherwise, we may say that Natural Law 1s 
the expression of the Will of God. But the point 
with which we are just now concerned is that 
Natural Law cannot be a perfect expression of the 
Will of God, although it is true so far as it goes.” 
“What we have in the world is something of God or 
from God, but it cannot possibly be God as He is in 
Himself. It cannot be so, because the entire mani- 
festation (apart from Christ) is finite, and under 
necessary conditions and limitations. Much of the 
universe can give no moral manifestation of God at 
all: and at its best and highest it is always limited 
and imperfect.’” 

If this is so, if God acts in natural law, but is 
not limited by it; that is, if God is free in His 
universe, then there is room for “miracle.” The 
real “natural law,’ as God knows it and could 


AS AE COE IS ee elU DSS SI SCAG ao aoe Nt 
whole passage, pp. 47 f. (to which the present writer is indebted 
for the above suggestions), develops the argument with con- 
siderable force. 

2 Compare what was said above on Divine Transcendence (p. 
£53) 
ae L. Walker, Christian Theism and a Spiritual Momsm, 
pp. 244 f. 

155 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


(perhaps does) use it, must be something very much 
vaster and more wonderful than the system whose 
laws we are painfully spelling out. It is manifestly 
absurd to suppose tuat what we know of natural 
law is the sum total of the possibilities of Divine 
action. But if once we admit, as we reasonably 
needs must, that what we call “natural law” is 
only a part, perhaps a very small part, of God’s 
activity in the universe; if once we admit that 
God can work on a higher plane, through laws and 
sequences beyond our present knowledge, then 
miracle becomes reasonable. It is only rational to 
suppose that God is free. To argue from human 
analogy—and what other analogy have we—we 
are free,* and God can hardly be less. The only 
ultimate cause with which we are personally 
acquainted is will, and will as we know it is free. 
If our will is free, and free too within certain 
limits to control and direct the laws of Nature, 
must not God’s will be free on an infinitely higher 
and wider scale? “If it be true that man can 
effect his own purposes in the world without any 
breach of natural law—that he can subordinate the 
physical order to higher purposes without violation 
of that order—how much more must we believe 
that the Infinite Spirit, who is the inner life and 
cause of all things, responds to all the needs of His 
spiritual creatures without violation of that uni- 


" We cannot here discuss the claims of determinism. The 
strongest argument for the reality of free-will resides in the in- 
extinguishable conviction of every sane man that he is free. As 
Dr. Johnson once said, “All theory is against free-will, but all 
experience is in its favor.” 


156 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


versal order which He has Himself ordained.”' 
“A miracle only means the liberty of God.” 
‘We have become obsessed by the idea of natural 
law to the point of tying down the infinite God to 
that single system of which science is spelling out 
the laws.’*? On this view miracle is no longer a 
violation of law, but an expression of law operating 
at a higher level and sub-serving a greater purpose. 

Such an interpretation of miracle throws new 
light on, and adds new significance to, the historic 
miracles wrought by Jesus Christ. The lame at- 
tempts to explain away those miracles as mind- 
cures, or as what Matthew Arnold called ‘moral 
therapeutics,’ appear as unnecessary as they are 
arbitrary. For if this was the supreme and critical 
moment in the history of the world, if God really 
was then and there intervening for the salvation 
of the race, would it not be pre-eminently a fitting 
occasion for Him to transcend the ordinary opera- 
tion of physical forces and manifest before the eyes 
of men the higher laws that would more perfectly 
express His Nature and His Purposes? And this 


1 D’Arcy, Christianity and the Supernatural, p. 26. 

2 Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Pp. 234. 

® Professor Hogg, of Madras, in the Edinburgh Conference 
Monthly News Sheet, January, 1910. There are not a few signs of 
reaction against this obsession of modern thought by the category 
of natural law. “Men are crying for a way of escape, for free- 
dom, for something beyond the iron law of natural uniformity.”— 
Figgis, The Gospel and Human Needs (Hulsean Lectures, 1908-9). 
See the whole of the first lecture. And compare Prof. Schiller’s 
remark in his paper on Religion and Science (Pan-Anglican Con- 
gress Papers, S. B. 18): “God to be really worthy of our wor- 
ship must be man’s Helper, nay, his Savior, his ideal refuge 
from the grinding pressure of the cosmic mechanism,” 


157 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


view of Christ’s miracles may be stated with equal 
force from a slightly different standpoint. Sup- 
posing the truth of the Christian view of Christ, . 
then may not His miracles be the ‘“‘natural’” works 
of a sinless Man living in perfect harmony with 
the will of God, and therefore in perfect harmony 
with the whole range of physical law and all its 
infinite resources? ‘‘Even the greatest imaginable 
victories of science,’ urges Professor Gwatkin, ‘‘are 
no measure of the results a man might obtain, or 
possibly enable others to obtain, if he were in per- 
fect sympathy of feeling, thought, and will with the 
Divine order of the entire universe—a character 
theologically described as without sin. Given such 
a man, I see nothing unlikely in the story that he 
had power to raise the dead. If it is not our own 
experience that Love is stronger than death the 
reason may be that none but such a man can ever 
wield the fullness of its power.” 4 

II. To turn to the second question about the 
Bible and criticism. Another highly significant 
event in the progress of modern thought has been 
the rise of the Science of Historical Criticism. 
The dominating temper in this movement, as in 
that of Physical Science, is a zeal to arrive at the 
facts. During the nineteenth century thinkers 
began to examine history afresh, turning on it the 
searchlight of a minute and patient scientific 
criticism, testing anew the sources and documents 
on which the original theories had been based. It 
was quite inevitable that, as time went on, this 
critical process should be applied to the Bible too. 

* Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. i. pp. 186-7. 
158 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


It was, and is, alien to the temper of the age to 
rest content with the decisions of authority or of 
tradition about the meaning and the history of 
the Bible. Thinking men desire to get behind 
tradition, to get behind the written text, and to 
investigate the process by which the Bible as we 
know it came into being. And this work of investi- 
gation is what is commonly known as the Science of 
Biblical Criticism. 

It would clear the air of a good deal of suspicion 
and misunderstanding if the ordinary man would 
take the trouble to discover what criticism is and 
what it is not. There are still too many devout 
Christians who frankly regard the higher critic as 
an enemy of the Faith. This profound miscon- 
ception is chiefly due to a mistake as to the nature 
and functions of criticism. Criticism as such 1s 
not ranged on the opposite side to all that believers 
hold dear. Indeed, as I hope later on to show, it 
is more of a friend than an enemy. It 1s, to speak 
accurately, neutral; it is a non-combatant. Crit- 
icism is simply a scientific test, and as such stands 
altogether apart from the nature and the quality 
of the thing tested. It does not necessarily make 
that which is insecure secure, neither can it render 
insecure that which is secure. What should we 
think of a man who employed an engineer to test 
his bridge and then hovered about him with sus- 
picious glances, and finally tried to pitch him into 
the river? The one aim of criticism is to get be- 
hind all arbitrary preconception and imaginary 
theorizings, and build its judgment upon the facts. 
Like the biologist with his microscope, the critic 

159 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


arms himself with all the implements of modern 
research and sets himself to find out everything he 
can about the language, the authorship, the history 
of each book in that wonderful Divine library which 
we call the Bible. The textual critic engages in 
a study of the actual text of the book. Is this the 
original text that we have before us? If not, 
what stages has it passed through in reaching its 
present form? Can we, by comparing the various 
readings in the different manuscripts that have 
survived, approximately reproduce the original? 
Then comes the “higher”! critic with further 
questions about the book’s origin and authorship. 
Who wrote it? Why did he write it? Whom did 
he write it for? And so on. And finally comes 
the historical critic, who labors to fix and estimate 
the place of the book in history, to recover the 
atmosphere of the time and place in which the 
book was composed, to recreate and realize the 
attitude and outlook of the writer and his contem- 
poraries. 

It is no doubt true that some non-Christian critics 
approach the Bible with a bias against the super- 
natural, and proceed to interpret it in accordance 
with their own rationalistic assumptions. Such a 
method, however, is essentially unscientific, and— 
its results are proportionately worthless. No good 
study can be carried out in any sphere unless there 
is a certain sympathy with the object studied. A 
chemist might analyze a picture’s paint and pro- 
nounce on the age of its canvas, but unless he 
approached it with something of the artistic spirit, 
it would mean about as much to him as it would 

* “Higher,” in technical distinction from textual or “lower.” 

160 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


to his dog. It is one thing to investigate; it is 
quite another thing to appreciate. And there are 
other critics, Christian critics, who, for lack of 
sober judgment and saving common sense, lose 
themselves in a maze of wild and fantastic theories, 
theories which wander afield unlinked by any visible 
connection with the facts from which they are 
supposed to start. But the rationalists and the 
theorists may safely be disregarded. Their specu- 
lative criticism is purely subjective, and, like most 
subjective criticism, it convinces no one but them- 
selves. In any case it is powerless to invalidate the 
sound results of sober scholarship, which simply 
endeavors to collect the facts and base some proba- 
ble conclusions upon them. It is worth noting, 
moreover, that some of the greatest Biblical critics 
have been men of deep Christian convictions, with 
a profound faith in the Divine character of the 
Christian Bible. We may take as an instance the 
late Professor Robertson Smith, who was the 
pioneer in Great Britain of Biblical criticism, and 
who lost his chair because of his critical views. 
Here is his answer to the question, why he accepted 
the Bible as inspired of God: ‘Because the Bible 
is the only record of the redeeming Love of God, 
because in the Bible alone I find God drawing near 
to man in Christ Jesus, and declaring to us in Him 
His will for our salvation; and this record I know 
to be true by the witness of His Spirit in my heart 
whereby I am assured that none other than God 
Himself is able to speak such words to my soul.’”* 
And what has been the result for Christian 


* Quoted in Miss A, W. Richardson’s pamphlet, Criticism and 
Inspiration, p. 8. 


M 161 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


thought of all this new study of the Bible? Per- 
haps the chief result has been to compel us to 
modify the traditional theory of the meeting of 
inspiration. All who hold the faith of Christ, 
whether critics or not, are agreed on the fact of 
the inspiration of the Bible; the only question is 
as to what exactly we mean by calling it inspired. 
In this connection it is well to remember that the 
Bible itself gives us no definition of its own inspira- 
tion. This being the case, one would suppose that 
the only satisfactory way to arrive at the meaning 
of inspiration would be carefully and patiently to 
examine the inspired books. But, until recently, 
this is exactly what has not been done. Men 
started with the preconceived notion that inspira- 
tion must entail a supernatural freedom from any 
possibility of error, however slight. Hence the 
theory of “verbal inspiration”; hence the idea 
that the Bible’s several books were the immediate 
work of the Holy Spirit, the human author acting, 
so to say, as a mere penholder. But a fresh study 
of these books has, for a large number of thoughtful 
people, rendered this view untenable. We are 
obliged to recognize that, in these inspired books, 


there is a genuinely human element present. ‘The - 


facts before us would seem to show clearly that 
when God “inspires” a man with a message for 
his fellow-men, He does not suppress his individu- 
ality, nor neutralize his human infirmities, nor 
confer on him a miraculous immunity from the 
possibility of error. On the contrary, He would 
appear to use the man’s personality, with its imper- 
162 





THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


fections, as the instrument by which to accomplish 
His purposes. The man is not as a piece of lifeless 
mechanism; but through his living human brain, 
hot from his heart, and over his human lips, passes 
forth the Word of God that has burnt itself upon 
his deepest consciousness. 

The gain from this view is unquestionable. It 
enables us to distinguish between the Divine 
message itself and the vehicle in which it comes; 
to separate the fact of the Revelation from its 
form. It is not too much to say that such a dis- 
tinction is indispensable to any satisfactory under- 
standing of the meaning of the Old Testament. 
The Old Testament thus viewed ceases to be a 
compendium and ready-made and final truth; it 
shows itself as a record of a progressive revelation, 
gradually unfolded by God and gradually appre- 
hended by man. The “difficulties” of the Old 
Testament regarded from this standpoint, dis- 
appear as by magic. For instance, the oft-debated 
question as to whether or not the first chapter of 
Genesis is scientifically correct appears, on this 
view, as much ado about nothing. Any question 
of scientific or historical accuracy belongs to the 
human factor of which we have spoken above, and 
is therefore powerless to invalidate the religious 
or spiritual truth involved. Supposing, for the sake 
of argument, that the writer of the first chapter of 
Genesis believed, as he apparently did, that the 
earth was created before the sun, still that belief 
of his affects not at all his sublime message of God’s 
absolute sovereignty in creation—‘‘in the beginning 

163 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 
GOD.” And it is the same with other “difficulties.” 


We are no longer obliged to try to reconcile every 
supposed discrepancy. We can now see that the 
immoralities and barbarities and imprecations which 
shock us belong to a lower stage of religious his- 
tory... We can look away from details to the great 
central truths which were being slowly taught to an 
unwilling nation, to the great Divine propose for 
the world which was being patiently wrought out in 
and through the vicissitudes of the nation’s history 
and the sufferings and triumphs of its individual 
members.” Altogether we stand to gain and not 
to lose. Criticism is throwing new light on the 
unique religious value of the Old Testament, and 
is providing us with an ever-broadening base for 


our belief that it is the Word of God. 


* It is not always realized that this task of discrimination is a 
task handed down to us by the New Testament itself. For in- 
stance, there were portions of the Law that Christ completely 
reversed; other portions He interpreted afresh, or declared to 
have been purely temporary (see Matt. v. passim). Similarly with 
His Apostles. They raise for us the question of the Canon, for 
we find them quoting from what the Church now regards as 
extra-canonical books (e. g. Jude 9, 14), in a manner indistinguish- 
able from their mode of quoting the Old Testament. And they 
raise the question of interpretation, importing a new and purely ~ 
metaphorical meaning into the original words (e. g. I Cor. ix. 9, 
quoting from Deut. xxv. 4). 

Henry Drummond’s biographer, Professor George Adam Smith, 
records the significant fact that, out of the multitude of men and 
women who sought Drummond’s spiritual help, a large number con- 
fessed to having lost their faith through the pressure of difficulties 
about the Old Testament. See G. A. Smith, Modern Criticism 
and the Preaching of the Old Testament, p. 27. The whole book 
deserves to be read and studied. 

* Professor Kirkpatrick, in The Higher Criticism (three Papers 
by S. R. Driver, D.D., and A. F. Kirkpatrick, D.D.), p. 13. 

164 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


With regard to the New Testament, the gain 
from modern criticism may truly be called incal- 
culable. The prodigious labor expended during 
the last half-century on a minute analysis of the 
chief documents of our faith has not been in vain. 
The battle round the records has been stern and 
prolonged, but now that the smoke is clearing away 
we are beginning to see the results. And the main 
result is a new and welcome certainty that those 
records are substantially true. ‘Slowly but surely 
the dates of the material documents have been 
pushed back, until less and less room has remained 
for the growth of legend. Correspondingly the 
conviction has strengthened that, whatever is to be 
decided as to the discrepancies in the Gospel records, 
we can have no doubt that they do present us with 
an accurate and trustworthy picture of the historical 
position as a whole.” Or we may take the opinion 
of such a competent and unprejudiced witness as 
the late G. J. Romanes, scientist and thinker: 
“The outcome of the great battle (round the 
documents),’”’ he says, ‘‘is impartially considered a 
signal victory for Christianity.’” 

This minute examination of the records, and 
consequent re-assurance of their trustworthiness, 
has led directly to another result, the importance 
of which cannot be exaggerated, and that is the 
recovery of the historical Christ. The vast re- 
sources of scholarship and archeology have suc- 
ceeded in re-shaping the stage, they have recovered 
for us the atmosphere, the background, the per- 

eer ATA, Robinson, D.D., Are We Making Progress? p. 21. 

2 G.J.Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, p. 155. 

165 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


spective. And, more than all, by their help we are 
enabled to see as never before the form and fashion 
of the Figure Who is moving in the midst. It is no 
exaggeration to say that we to-day stand face to 
face with the Christ as no generation has stood since 
the first. He is, to us, not a figment of imagination, 
nor an abstraction of theology, but a real and living 
Person. ‘The historic Personality of Jesus,” says 
Professor Cairns, “has risen upon the consciousness 
of the Church with the force almost of a new rev- 
elation, the ultimate results of which still lie far 
in the future.’ 

Ili. The third question which bothers some 
people has to do with the new, but extraordinarily 
important, science of psychology. Can the Chris- 
tian, in view of the investigations of modern psy- 
chology, be quite sure that there is no element of 
self-delusion in his spiritual experiences? ‘The con- 
cluding pages of this chapter will only try to indi- 
cate an answer to this question, without attempting 
anything in the nature of a general review of the 
relations of psychology and religion. 

It has been quite inevitable that psychology should 
push its investigations right into the field of religious 


experience. Religion at first escaped, merely because © 


scientists—or many scientists—loftily dismissed it 
as belonging to the region of delusion, and therefore 
unworthy of scientific investigation. But that atti- 
tude has passed away. Most thinkers are now 
agreed that religion has its facts just as much as 
any old realm of human experience, and the old 
divorce between scientific facts and religious facts 
* Cairns, Christianity in the Modern World, p. 14. 
166 


=. | ..< 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


has lost its justification. The result has been a 
new and tremendous impetus for the scientific 
study of religious phenomena, and in particular the 
rise of what is known as physiological psychology, 
which is the scientific term describing the endeavor 
to trace the mysterious but real connection between 
a man’s mental and his physical states, the relation 
between thought itself and the physical factors 
which condition it. With infinite skill and patience, 
investigators have applied the microscope and dis- 
secting knife of psychology to large areas of the field 
of religious experience; they have minutely ex- 
amined the physical and psychical conditions of 
many of the common Christian phenomena, such 
as conviction of sin, conversion, assurance of peace, 
saintliness and the like. 

And what, so far, has been the result of all this 
investigation? It is to be feared that one result 
at any rate has been the production of real per- 
plexity in many a devout mind. Perhaps the crux 
of the difficulty may be stated thus: Does not this 
recent investigation tend to show that Christian 
experience can be accounted for largely on physical 
grounds? ‘The Christian asserts that he holds com- 
munion with a personal God. Does not psychology, 
while admitting that something happens, never- 
theless explain that happening by the physical and 
mental conditions with which it is inextricably 
bound up? ‘There is no doubt that the writings 
of some psychologists give some color to this fear. 
It is possible to find men who will seriously assert 
that conversion is nothing more than an ordinary 
phenomenon attaching to the crisis of puberty and 

1607 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


adolescence; or that religion in general is a mere 
survival of a primitive instinct, or a transient state 
or condition in the evolution of the human mind. 
But suchlike assumptions (for they are nothing 
more) should not be confused with the assured 
results of cautious psychological investigation. In 
truth, a reasonable psychology is more friend than 
foe to the Christian faith. For we may appositely 
apply here the same great principle which, as we 
saw above, is the rock on which the materialist case 
splits, the principle that to describe a process does 
not necessarily explain its cause. Indeed, when in 
psychological research we attempt to find the cause 
and meaning of the whole phenomenon in the 
attendant physical and psychical conditions, we 
rapidly find ourselves in the region of absurdities. 
What Professor William James—a pioneer in the 
new psychology—said about such “‘medical material- 
ism’ is still worth quoting to-day. ‘Medical 
materialism,’ he scornfully remarks, “finishes up 
St. Paul by calling his vision on the road to Damas- 
cus a discharging lesion of the occipital cortex, he 
being an epileptic. It snuffs out Saint Tersea as 
an hysteric, Saint Francis of Assisi as a hereditary 
degenerate. George Fox’s discontent with the - 
shams of his age, and his pining for spiritual verac- 
ity, it treats as a symptom of a disordered colon.” ? 
And then he proceeds neatly to turn the tables on 
the ‘medical materialists’” by means of their own 
weapons. “According to (one of) the general 
postulates of psychology, there is not a single one 

* Compare theories noted by James, Varieties of Religious 
Experience, pp. 10 f., 499 f. 

168 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


of our states of mind, high or low, healthy or 
morbid, that has not some organic process as its 
condition. Scientific theories are organically con- 
ditioned just as much as religious emotions are, and 
if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we 
should doubtless see ‘the liver’ determining the 
dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does 
those of the Methodist under conviction anxious 
about his soul.””* 

It can confidently be affirmed that the general 
trend of psychology is to establish the reality of 
religious experience. It is no function of the 
psychologist to pronounce on the nature of the 
objective Power or Person with which the man 
believes himself to be in communication. But 
psychology can, and does, say that that experience 
is a real experience and no delusion, and that it 
possesses a definite spiritual value. It is inevitable 
—indeed it is right—that this new science should 
make every effort to lay bare the hidden psychic 
and physical factors at work in the religion of the 
individual soul. But it is a profound mistake to 
regard this analytical process as necessarily im- 
pugning the ultimate spiritual value of the thing 
analyzed. And, however the process may be ex- 
plained, there is, in countless instances, no doubt 
at all as to the far-reaching practical effects of the 
mysterious inner happenings. ‘To quote Professor 
James again: ‘The unseen region is not merely 
ideal, for it produces effects in this world. When 
we commune with it, work is actually done upon our 
finite personality, for we are turned into new men, 

+ James, op. cit., pp. 13, 14. 
169 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


and consequences in the way of conduct follow in 
the natural world upon our regenerative change. 
But that which produces effects within another 
reality must be termed a reality itself, so I feel as 
if we had no philosophic excuse for calling the 
unseen or mystical world unreal.’ 

Further than this, neither he nor any other 
psychologist, as such, can go. The student who 
would view all the factors in the spiritual experience 
of the Christian must, for the remaining elements, 
turn to historic fact, with which psychology has no 
direct concern. But I am inclined to think that 
the psychologist and the historian between them 
would, on an impartial survey, admit not only the 


value but the truth of Christian experience. Let 


us put it in this way. Take a good specimen of a 
professed Christian. Here we have, as the psychol- 
ogist would admit, a very real effect going on, in 
character and in life, whatever technical descrip- 
tions he might give of the attendant intellectual or 
emotional conditions. Now turn to history. There 
we find—and historians support us—that there 
once appeared a Man, Who said that He was the 
Son of God, and therefore through the centuries 
would continue living and accessible to men, and 
Who promised that communion with Himself should 
produce just such effects on life and character as 
our Christian is displaying. Again we look at 
history, past and present, and we find that our 
Christian is no isolated specimen, but that count- 
less numbers have manifested and are manifesting 
these effects, and all attribute them to the one 
* James, op. cit., p. 516. 
170 


bt 
j . 


THE MODERN OUTLOOK 


Cause. Of course it is just conceivable that all are 
victims of a universal delusion, and that the historic 
event did not happen as asserted. But if in a 
general way the reality of contact with the unseen 
world is granted, as we have seen that many psy- 
chologists do grant it, and if even the bare minimum 
of Christianity’s historic facts are true, then as- 
suredly we are right in affirming that the Christian’s 
spiritual experience of communion with God in 
Christ is a thing absolutely and fundamentally real. 

In this connection it is worth noting that some 
religious thinkers are on dangerous ground in their 
tendency to divorce the Christ of history from the 
Christ of experience. It matters little or nothing, 
say they, if a thing is historically true provided it 
is ideally true. They think thus to render themselves 
immune from attack from the side of historical 
criticism. But if they so blithely surrender the one 
citadel, they are like to find the other. go too, 
whether they will or no. For the Christian, objec- 
tive historical fact and inner spiritual experience 
are, as we have just seen, bound up together, and 
in their union lies their strength. ‘To cut our com- 
munications and meet the hostile psychologist away 
from the base of history is a foolhardy operation 
and one that is likely to end in disaster. 


171 





GHAR DERI 
THE SINGLE HEART AND THE OPEN MIND 





CAR TE Rix 
THE SINGLE HEART AND THE OPEN MIND 


“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . .. and 
with all thy mind.”—Matt. xxii. 37. 


“The being who has intellect does not love perfectly unless his 
intellect takes part in his loving.’—Puittips Brooks. 


“When the procession of your powers goes up joyfully singing 
to worship in the temple, do not leave the noblest of them all 
behind to cook the dinner and to tend the house. . . . Insist on 
seeing all that you can see now through the glass darkly, so that 
hereafter you may be ready when the time for seeing face to face 
shall come.”—PHuitires Brooks. 

Most personalities are a sum total of more or 
less varied characteristics. The combination of 
these characteristics may result in inconsistency, or, 
if unified under a controlling will, it may make for 
strength of character. It is with the particular 
combination indicated in the title to this chapter 
that it is my purpose to deal. 

It is fairly obvious that, if a Christian man is 
to be “complete and perfectly equipped for every 
good work,’’* he should combine a single heart 
with an open mind (using the term ‘‘open mind” 
in the broad sense of reasoning activity). But as 
a matter of fact the combination is none too 
common. ‘Too often the clever man is all brains 
without zeal, the enthusiast all zeal without brains. 

pee WL diniy iit 73 
175 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


The theologian has little evangelism, the evangelist 
little theology. One man is always testing his 
creed with an open mind, and barely attains con- 
viction. The other man has plenty of convictions, 
but regards it as a species of sacrilege to examine 
the foundations on which they are built. Mean- 
while the hungry at heart are left outside, un- 
satisfied. They fall between two stools. They go 
to the first man and find no faith, to the other 
and find no reason. The one offers them some- 
thing quite unsubstantial; the other produces 
that which they cannot possibly swallow. Where 
are they to turn? This query hinges on the prior 
question, Is this alternative inevitable? Must 
there be this divorce between faith and reason? 
Is it impossible for the single heart and the open 
mind to dwell together in unity? It is an old 
question, but it needs facing afresh in every 
generation. 

Let us, quite briefly, note what these facts are. 
In the first place, as we saw in the previous chapter, 
human thought has, since the beginning of the last 
century, climbed to an entirely new point of out- 
look. There can be no going back to the lower 
ground, and ignoring the new horizon that has 
come into view. Things have been brought within 
our vision that were completely hidden from the 
eyes of our forefathers. In Science, in Philosophy, 
in the critical study of History, new methods have 
been devised, and astounding results have been 
achieved. The fanciful speculations of former 
days have given way to a wholly new appreciation 
of, even reverence for, facts. Moreover, there has 

176 


THE SINGLE HEART AND OPEN MIND 


been a growing obliteration of the sharp dividing 
lines which used to be drawn round each separate 
department of study. “There is no feature of the 
last half-century more characteristic than the way 
in which all departments of knowledge are becoming 
an organic unity.’”* 

This advance in thought has, as we have seen, 
inevitably affected our view of the Bible, and our 
attitude towards the fundamentals of our faith. 
No good is to be gained by frantic efforts to inclose 
the Faith, and wall it in from the blustering winds 
of free inquiry. Whether we like it or not, our 
faith and the new thought must meet, and it will 
be wiser in the end to work for their reconciliation 
than take for granted their enmity. I speak in 
the future tense, but, in point of fact, the transition 
is already proceeding. ‘The minute inquiry into 
the nature and composition of the books of the 
Bible has compelled us to remodel our theory of 
inspiration. We believe, indeed, with firmer con- 
viction than ever, that the Bible is the Word of 
God; but we are learning to regard its several 
writers, not as mechanical instruments for the 
Divine Hand, but as living human witnesses to their 
Divine Message. 

On the New Testament especially the searchlight 
of criticism has been poured. Line by line the 
Gospels have been sifted, as men have attacked 
with ever-increasing zest the ever fresh problem 
of the personality of Jesus of Nazareth. Nothing 
escapes the modern passion for investigation. 
Psychology is patiently and steadily analyzing the 

* Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, vol. i. p. 270. 

N 177, 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


whole field of religious experience. Physical 
Science, with her insistence on Natural Law, is 
compelling us to examine afresh the meaning of 
miracle. Prompted by Science, Theology has re- 
discovered the truth of the Immanence of God. 
And, to cite one more instance, the science of com- 
parative religion is obliging us to re-state the mean- 
ing and the motive of the missionary enterprise. 
As we take the Gospel to the heathen, it is dawning 
on our minds to-day that Christ “came not to 
destroy but to fulfill.” 

Here, then, is one set of facts, facts that it will 
be fatal to ignore; facts so important, so insistent, 
that they seem to be calling for a whole new army 
of Christian thinkers. But they are not the only 
facts, and thinkers are not the only men that are 
needed. Indeed, as one looks out upon the world, 
it appears to be apostles and prophets who are 
needed most of all. The world wants driving con- 
victions more than considered opinions. ‘Truth 
becomes effective by being felt to be truth. Stated 
in accurate form it has a very neat appearance, and 
is convenient for reference and consultation, but 
there is no inward necessity that we should do any- 
thing about it. Not until some one feels that some- - 
thing is true does that something go out with effec- 
tive power into the world.’”* 

If ever the world was in desperate need of Christ, 
it is in this our own century, the twentieth since 
He first came. If ever there was a call for un- 
hesitating, unwavering devotion on the part of those 


* L. N. Clarke, quoted by J. S. Dennis, The New Horoscope of 
Missions, p. 206. 


178 


THE SINGLE HEART AND OPEN MIND 


who bear His Name, it is in the present age, with 
its unprecedented opportunities for a great Chris- 
tian advance. On every side sounds the summons to 
sacrifice. At last the Church is beginning to realize 
that the Kingdom will never triumph till those who 
call Christ Master fling themselves passionately and 
whole-heartedly into the service of His Cause. It 
is no time for half-measures. The world needs men 
so filled with God that through them there shall be 
an outflowing of the Divine on to the sons of men. 
“One spiritual man wholly immersed in God would 
infallibly revolutionize for good England and the 
world, though indeed it would be by his death.” 
“The deepest need of our age is that we should get 
back Christ’s conception and sense of God. When- 
ever you have an overmastering sense of God, 
however inadequately conceived, you have power.’” 

These, then, constitute the two main groups of 
facts that confront the Christian man as he looks 
out upon the world to-day. He is made aware 
both of a new intellectual challenge and of a fresh 
call to devotion. If we will respond to both, well 
and good. But too frequently he falls into the 
snare of giving his exclusive attention to the one and 
leaving the other out of view. Whenever this 
happens, loss of spiritual efficiency is the inevitable 
result. Look for a moment at the consequences 
of this one-sidedness. Here is a man—genuinely 
religious as well as mentally proficient—who is 
impressed with the importance of keeping abreast 
of modern thought. He becomes increasingly 
fascinated by the absorbing nature of intellectual 

* P. N. Waggett. ? J. H. Oldham. 
179 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


adventure and discovery. In the course of time he 
becomes so engrossed in his search as gradually to 
lose sight of his object. His attention is diverted 
from the needs of the world and all the practical 
questions of Christian policy. Finally, perhaps, he 
drifts into a certain intellectual dilettantism; he is 
so overtaken by the inertia of open-mindedness that 
his convictions become flabby and nerveless. He 
falls a victim to that mental disease so racily de- 
scribed by G. K. Chesterton: ‘‘What we suffer from 
to-day is humility in the wrong place. . . . We are 
on the road to producing a race too mentally modest 
to believe in the multiplication table. We are in 
danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law 
of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own.”* 
He joins the ranks of those whom Renan describes 
as mere “spectators of the universe, who cannot 
alter it if they would, and perhaps would not if 
they could.” As H. C. King has truly remarked, 
“A fatal facility in taking any point of view, or 
of defending any proposition, carries with it the 
danger of breaking down all real conviction.’ And 
so when men come to him, as a Christian thinker, 
for the bread of life, he is regretfully compelled to 
send them away empty. The influence of Chris- — 
tianity is the communication of life; the man who 
is busied solely with dry bones and chemical analysis 
has got nothing living to offer. 

On the other hand, there is an almost equal 
danger of ignoring the intellectual factor. In 
shunning the one pitfall, men have often fallen into 
the other. Hence the frequent spectacle of devotion 

* Orthodoxy, p. 54. * Rational Living, p. 127. 
180 


THE SINGLE HEART AND OPEN MIND 


divorced from reason and wedded to intolerance. 
“There are Christians all about us who fear to 
bring their minds to bear upon their religion lest 
their hearts should lose their hold upon it.’* In 
the past this has been a grave weakness in certain 
sections of Protestant Christianity. It is a weak- 
ness partly inherent in the very strength of the 
Protestant position, with its insistence on the all- 
sufficiency of faith. Man reaches God by faith 
alone, and not by a prolonged and arduous intel- 
lectual climb. That is perfectly true; but it is 
an easy step from that position to one that gives 
reason no part nor lot in the matter, or even (as 
some extremists have done) abhors it as the devil’s 
own ally. Once let reason in, say they, and there is 
no room left for mystery. But it is a profound 
mistake ‘to identify the mysterious with the 
irrational. A religion that did not transcend the 
reach of our unaided reason and demand our faith 
would be without value to us. But a religion that 
contradicted reason would be simply incredible.’” 
Due to this distrust of reason is the not uncommon 
case of a man devoted to God and the Kingdom, 
who mars his usefulness by a rigid intolerance and 
total inability to appreciate the point of view of 
those who serve the same Kingdom but cannot share 
his shibboleths. On every page of Christian his- 
tory we find a repetition of the same mistake: men 
confound devotion with intolerance. The con- 
fusion is partly due to a genuine uncompromising 

* Phillips Brooks, Sermon on “The Mind’s Love for God,” in 
Sermons Preached in English Churches, p. 36. 

2 A. S. Peake, Christianity: Its Nature and Its Truth, p. 32. 

181 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


zeal, partly to the inborn tendency of man to guard 
the door when once he is safely inside the house. 
Yet the Incarnation made room for the whole race. 
Christ flung the obstacles aside and opened wide the 
door. Shall we hedge it round and guard it, that 
none may enter in save he who wears our colors 
and speaks our password? Creed is a privilege to 
unite, not a test to exclude. ‘The general Protes- 
tant procedure of requiring, as the initial step in 
the religious life, acceptance of a whole system of 
doctrines, has been misleading, and has tended dis- 
tinctly to the deadening of the spiritual life.’ 
Christianity is not a sort of Masonic lodge; it is 
a cathedral that belongs to the whole world, and 
to which all men have the right of access. More- 
over, it is the nemesis of narrow-mindedness that 
it defeats its own object. Speaking generally, 
there are no more zealous fishers of men than those 
who possess a single heart, but are afraid of the 
open mind. But they hamper their own efforts. 
They spend herculean labors in squeezing one 
man through the private portal of their own crea- 
tion, when they might be shepherding dozens 
through the wide and public gate into the City of 
God. 
Is there, then, no via media? Is there no hope 
of finding thinkers who are also enthusiastic, en- 
thusiasts who are also thoughtful? To this ques- 
tion it is for our generation to supply the answer. 
An affirmative answer can be found, and, let us note 
with thankfulness, is already being put forth. The 
devoted lives of thousands of thoughtful men and 
* H.C. King, The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life, p. 92. 
182 





THE SINGLE HEART AND OPEN MIND 


women bear witness that the divorce between faith 
and reason, between thought and sacrifice, is un- 
natural and unnecessary. And further, such a 
divorce is essentially unscriptural. Christ never 
spoke of, or treated, man as other than a rational 
being. In the Bible at least reason is Divine, not 
satanic. “The man of God is called to be “com- 
plete’; he is summoned to “present to God all 
his faculties as an act of reasonable worship.’”* 
His consecration is one-sided, imperfect, immature, 
unless it shall include both the single heart and the 
open mind. 

May we, in conclusion, attempt to note more 
positively what this combination will involve? 
Let me say here that it is not the man of special 
gifts whom I have in mind, but the average man 
endowed with quite ordinary reasoning faculties. 
On the other hand, while avoiding the dangers of 
mere intellectualism alluded to above, he will 
cultivate an alert yet reverent mental outlook. To 
use a phrase of Bishop Moule’s, he will be ‘an eager 
observer of all new knowledge, while absolutely at 
rest in Christ.” He will never be afraid to look 
new facts in the face, nor frightened into hiding his 
faith in the citadel of the obscurantist. He will be 
willing to move with the movement of thought, 
knowing that all true thought must lead not away 
from but unto Him Who is the Truth. He will 
realize that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness 
thereof, and in that faith will be prepared to find a 
fresh revelation of God in every advance of human 
knowledge. Each great scientist, each new phi- 

~ Rom, exits 1 
183 


MODERN DISCIPLESHIP 


losopher, will appear to him as pioneers exploring 
their corners of a territory, the whole vast extent of 
which is the Lord’s. More than all, he will set 
himself with a new zest to inspect and measure and 
locate the foundations of his faith. It is impossible 
to exaggerate the importance of this task. Each 
generation in turn, and our own not least, must give 
a reason for the faith that is init. The best apostles 
of the faith are those who know where the founda- 
tions lie. The extent and durability of those foun- 
dations are disclosed only to those who had delved 
with their own muscles and seen with their own 
eyes. Indeed, one of the greatest needs of our 
own days is more clear thinking among Christians 
as to what is vital and what is immaterial, what 
is essential and what is accidental. The most 
earnest believers are often the most vague and 
hazy as to the content of their faith. And loose 
thinking is the parent of intolerance, as well as 
the despair of those who are asking to be shown a 
reasonable faith. Convictions to be communicated 
must be formulated. ‘‘The implicit principles of 
Christian life and worship are principles valid for 
the intellect. Christ cannot be ‘the Way’ and ‘the 
Life,’ unless He is also ‘the Truth.’ The decision 
for Christ is not only a moral but also an intellectual 
decision.”* “He who would commend Chris- 
tianity to our perplexed and distracted age, must 
himself understand the religion for whose accept- 
ance he pleads.’” 
* Bishop Gore, in a University Sermon. 
Ti Asooer Peake op act nui d 
184 


THE SINGLE HEART AND OPEN MIND 


But hand in hand with this broad sanity of 
mental outlook must go a resolute, unflinching 
devotion. So far from there being any antagonism 
between the two, the second should be the outcome 
of the first. The highest devotion will always rest 
on a reasoned faith. The apostle will do a yet 
greater work if he is a thinker too. The man who 
has looked all the facts in the face and emerged at 
length into the light of a glorious certainty—he is 
the man who can afford to lay down his life for the 
Cause. For him sacrifice is no leap in the dark; 
he knows it is infinitely worth while. He has no 
misgivings that all will turn out to be a dream. 
Reason is no more a traitorous guide, she is his 
trusted ally. With her help he has seen the ground 
of faith, he has found the map of life; joyfully now 
will he become the servant and guide of those who 
are still wanderers in the trackless wilderness. 
With all the faculties that God has given him he has 
discovered that Christ is real, that Christ is true; 
therefore with a glad heart and a ready mind will 
he tread in his Master’s steps, and spend himself 
in his Master’s service. 

The need of the world is pressing, the golden 
opportunities are slipping past. If we go about 
the work of God with mental timidity or qualified 
enthusiasm, we shall make no impression on our 
generation. Passionate devotion, joined with a 
cool and reasoned confidence—here is a two-edged 
sword that shall smite and win the victory. God 
send the men to wield it. 


185 





INDEX 


ACTION, automatic, 7 

Adeney, W. F., 60 

Advent, Christ’s Second, 129 

_ Apocalyptic element in Christ’s 
teaching, 129-130 

Arnold, Matthew, 157 

Assisi, St. Francis of, 168 

Atonement, The, 14 

Attention, as affecting charac- 
ter, 48-50 

Augustine, St., 103 


Beethoven, 150 

Benson, Margaret, 151, 153 
Bible, 55 ff., 158-1 66 
criticism of, 158-166 
inspiration of, 161-163 
—— study of, 59, 60 

unity of, 56, 57 
Brooks, Phillips, 181 











Bryce, 133 

Buddhism, 113, 135 

atts ul 7, 2315) 132; EAt; 
166 


(Character, 30, SI; 77, 78, 112 
Chesterton, G. K., 157, 180 
China, 98 

Christian, definition of a, 3, 4 
Christianity, personal, 4 
Church, 32-36, 136, 137, ne 
Church, unity of, 32-36, 13 
Commentaries, use of, 69 
Conduct and Religion, 30, 40 
Cross, The, 15, I 


D’Arcy, Bishop, 157 
Denney, James, 5 
bDenniss 1/5), 178 


Discipleship, Christ’s standard | 
of, 115-119 

Dogma, 6 

Drummond, H., 46, 50, 110, 135, 
164 


Edinburgh, World Missionary 
Conference, ea FAV i. 

Eschatology, 129, I 

Evangelization of ae World, 
34, 35, 130 ff. 

Evil, 129 

Evolution, 126, 147, 148, 152 


Faith, 5, 7-17, 24, 25, 45, 88, 95, 
96, 114 

Fatherhood of God, 93 

Figgis, J. N., 16 

Forgiveness, 14-17, 29, 30 

Freedom of: God, 89, 91 

of man, 89, 91 

Friendship, human, 22, 23 

Friendship with God, 21 ff. 





Gairdner, W. H. T., 77, 78, 137 

Garibaldi, 117 

Gore, Bishop, 184 

Griffith- Jones, 147 

Gwatkin, H. M., 13, 80, 92, 126, 
152, 154, 158, 77 


Habit, 47, 48 

Harnack, 109 

Hausa, 135 

Hinduism, 135 

Historical criticism, 158, 160, 162 
History, 5, 126, 127, 165, 166 
Hoge; AvGi 140.) 157 
Holiness of God, 14 


187 


INDEX 


Hovland 433 

Holy Communion, The, 27-31 
Horton, Dr., 90 

Houlder, H. -F., 131 

Huxley, 149 


Illingworth, J. R., 9, 90, 150 
Immanence, Divine, 152-154 
Incarnation, 28, 35 


James, William, 47, 168, 169, 
170 
Japan;\132 


TING hdd 924 AO. LOO, Toe 

Kingdom of God, 126-131, 133, 
134, 136-141 

Kirkpatrick, A. F., 164 


Lawrence, Brother, 26 
Lees, Harrington, 57, 67 
Wucas, beak 

Lull, Raymond, 88 


Martyn, Henry, 26, 88 

Materialism, 148, 149 

Maurice, F. D., 11, 590 

Mind, 150, 152, 153 

Miracles, 154-158 

Missions, Foreign, 88, 125, 130- 
132, 134-1390 

Mohammedanism, 135 

Morning Watch, 25 

Moti Wine 24 51320133 

Moule, Bishop, 56 

Muller, George, 88 

Mystical Union with Christ, 12, 
13 

Mysticism, 12, 13, 73, 74, 113 


Name of Jehovah, 94 

of Jesus, 94, 95 

Nationalism, new spirit of, 131- 
133 

Natural Law, 147, 148, 154-156 

Nature, 146 

Nicza, Council of, 136 

Nirvana, 113 





Oldham, J. H., 96, 179 


Parable of the Friend at Mid- 
night, 06 

Parable of the Good Samaritan, 
105 

Parable of the Unjust Judge, 96 

Parousia, 120, 130 

Peabody, F. G., 105, 123 

Peake, “A. 57°58, 75,0 P40 eee 
187 

Peile, J. H. Fi, 107, 112 

Perseverance, 22 

Personality, 34, 35, 74-80, 106- 
LO7 GIS etiS 

Philanthropy, 107, 118 

Power of God, 139 

Prayer, 25, 26, 85-99 

answers to, 86, 87 

intellectual difficulties of, 








89 





intercessory, 86, 89-99 
—— mystery of, 89 

—— objective results of, 86 
persistency in, 96, 97 
—— power of, 87 

practice in, 98 
sympathy in, 98 
Presence of God, 24-26 
Problem, Social, 116, 133 
Psychology, 48, 166-171 
Purpose of God, 126, 127 











Races, Relations of, 133, 134 
Relationship with Christ, 22 ff. 
Renan, 180 

Richardson, A. W., 161 
Robinson, A. W., 35, 165 
Robinson, Forbes, 96, 99 
Romanes, G. J., 165 
Rutherford, Samuel, 26, 119 


Sacrament of Baptism, 32 

— of the Lord’s Supper, 27-31 
Sacrifice, 117-119 

Salvation, 40, 105 

Sanday, W. M., 79 

Science, physical, 146, 148. 


188 


INDEX 


Self, sub-conscious, 75-81 
Service, 164-119 
Shaftesbury, Lord, 88 
Sin, 14, 42-44 

Smith, George Adam, 164 
Smith, Robertson, 161 
Soulsby, L. H. M., 115 
Spencer, Herbert, 128 
Spurgeon, 109 

Storr av ibs Jel 27, 140 
Student Christian Movement, 70 
Sub-consciousness, 75-81 


atiow....; 150 

Taylor, Hudson, 88 
Telepathy, 92 
Testament, New, 60, 165 
Old, 61-63, 163, 164 
Theism, 152 

Theresa, St., 168 





Thornton, D. M., 78 
Transcendence, Divine, 153 


Virchow, 149 
Vision, 124 


Warecett, Pl N:) 170 
Walker, W. L., 155 
Walpole, Bishop, 31, 64 
Wesley, John, 88 

Wilkinson, Bishop, 114 

Will, 11, 43, 48, 77, 78, 90 
Will of God, 94, 95, 140, 155 
Willingness of man, 90, 91 
Winkle, Rip van, 47 

Work, Christian, 106 
“personal,” 106 ff. 
preparation for, 123, 124 
World, unseen, 27, 140 
Wundt, 149 








189 


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